Method for sorting post-consumed bottles and apparatus thereof

Claim 1

A method for sorting post-consumed bottles comprising the steps of: charging post-consumed bottles having a longitudinal direction, contour, size and color into a hopper where they are randomly mixed, the hopper having a lower side defining a supply port; causing the post-consumed bottles to form a row in their longitudinal direction after passing through the supply port provided on the lower side of the hopper while applying a vibration to the hopper thereby moving forward the post-consumed bottles one by one on a supply conveyor; separating each post-consumed bottle to have a certain distance between one post-consumed bottle and another by intermittently interrupting a moving flow of the post-consumed bottles by a gate regularly opening and closing on a separation conveyor onto which the moving post-consumed bottles are delivered; detecting the contour and size of each post-consumed bottle by processing an image picked up by a first image pickup device comprising one of a first image pickup camera and an ultrasonic displacement sensor on a detection conveyor onto which the separated post-consumed bottle is delivered; detecting color at a high speed by picking up an image by a second image pickup device comprising an image pickup camera, the image being defined by data obtained from the contour and size detecting step; and discharging the used post-consumed bottles of which the size, shape and color have been detected at predetermined positions by comparison with preliminarily established size, shape and color data.

Claim 2

A method for sorting post-consumed bottles comprising the steps of: charging post-consumed bottles having a longitudinal direction, contour, size and color into a hopper where they are randomly mixed, the hopper having a lower side defining a supply port; causing the post-consumed bottles to form a row in their longitudinal direction after passing through the supply port provided on the lower side of the hopper while applying a vibration to the hopper thereby moving forward the post-consumed bottles one by one on a supply conveyor; separating each post-consumed bottle to have a certain distance between one post-consumed bottle and another by intermittently interrupting a moving flow of the post-consumed bottles by a gate regularly opening and closing on a separation conveyor onto which the moving post-consumed bottles are delivered; detecting the contour and size of each post-consumed bottle by processing an image picked up by a first image pickup device comprising one of a first image pickup camera and an ultrasonic displacement sensor on a detection conveyor onto which the separated post-consumed bottle is delivered; detecting color at a high speed by picking up an image by a second image pickup device comprising an image pickup camera, the image being defined by data obtained from the contour and size detecting step; and discharging the used post-consumed bottles of which the size, shape and color have been detected at predetermined positions by comparison with preliminarily established size, shape and color data.

Claim 4

An apparatus for sorting post-consumed bottles comprising: a supply section for receiving post-consumed bottles having a longitudinal direction randomly mixed without order and moving the post-consumed bottles continuously and in the longitudinal direction of the post-consumed bottles such that the post-consumed bottles form a row; a separating section for separating continuously each moving post-consumed bottle in the row to have a certain distance between one post-consumed bottle and another; a detecting section for picking up the contour, size and color of each post-consumed bottle and classifying the post-consumed bottles into several types according to predetermined standard bottle patterns; a sorting section for sorting and discharging the post-consumed bottles by said predetermined standard bottle patterns in accordance with data from said detecting section; and a control section for continuously providing a controlling series of operations to said respective sections, wherein said supply section and said separating section each comprise a belt conveyor with the belt conveyor of said separating section running at a higher speed than the belt conveyor of said supply section, a plate-like gate rotatably supported near the end of said supply section belt conveyor, two motors for turning a shaft of said plate-like gate alternately in one direction and a reverse direction regularly, and an operation controller for said motors.

Claim 5

An apparatus for sorting post-consumed bottles comprising: a supply section for receiving post-consumed bottles having a longitudinal direction randomly mixed without order and moving the post-consumed bottles continuously and in the longitudinal direction of the post-consumed bottles such that the post-consumed bottles form a row; a separating section for separating continuously each moving post-consumed bottle in the row to have a certain distance between one post-consumed bottle and another; a detecting section for picking up the contour, size and color of each post-consumed bottle and classifying the post-consumed bottles into several types according to predetermined standard bottle patterns; a sorting section for sorting and discharging the post-consumed bottles by said predetermined standard bottle patterns in accordance with data from said detecting section; and a control section for continuously providing a controlling series of operations to said respective sections, wherein said supply section and said separating section each comprise a belt conveyor with the belt conveyor of said separating section running at a higher speed than the belt conveyor of said supply section, a plate-like gate rotatably supported near the end of said supply section belt conveyor, two motors for turning a shaft of said plate-like gate alternately in one direction and a reverse direction regularly, and an operation controller for said motors.