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US 12,522,442 B2Granted
Thin strip classification
AssigneeSortera Technologies, Inc.
InventorsLakshmi Chellappan, Manuel Gerardo Garcia, Jr., Hoang Triet Giang Le, Casey Hughlett
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sorting system conveys a heterogeneous mixture of material pieces past an XRF system and a vision system. A classification of a material piece is changed to a high copper content aluminum alloy when the XRF system classifies the material piece as a low copper content aluminum alloy and the vision system determines that the material piece is a thin strip material piece. The reclassified material piece is then sorted accordingly.
Claims19
A method comprising:
- capturing information associated with a material piece by a sensor system;
- classifying the material piece as a function of the captured information to produce a first classification;
- capturing a visual image of the material piece;
- analyzing the captured visual image to determine if the material piece has a thin strip shape;
- and
- changing the first classification to a second classification when (i) the first classification is that the material piece is composed of an aluminum alloy with a relatively low copper content and (ii) the material piece is determined to have a thin strip shape,
- wherein the second classification is that the material piece is composed of an aluminum alloy with a relatively high copper content.
4 more elements
A material handling system comprising:
- a conveyor system configured to convey a mixture of material pieces;
- a sensor configured to capture one or more characteristics of each of the mixture of material pieces;
- first circuitry configured to classify certain ones of the mixture of material pieces as belonging in a first class of materials based on the one or more captured characteristics of the mixture of material pieces;
- a vision system configured to capture visual images of each of the mixture of material pieces;
- second circuitry configured to analyze the captured visual images to determine which of the material pieces have a thin strip shape;
- third circuitry configured to change a classification of a material piece as belonging in the first class of materials to a classification that the material piece belongs in a second class of materials when (i) the first class of materials is low copper content aluminum alloys and (ii) the material piece is determined to have a thin strip shape, wherein the second class of materials is high copper content aluminum alloys;
- and
- a sorter configured to sort the material piece from the first mixture of materials as a function of the change of the classification of the material piece.
5 more elements
A process for sorting material pieces comprising:
- conveying a heterogeneous mixture of material pieces past an XRF system and a vision system;
- capturing an XRF spectrum associated with a first one of the material pieces by the XRF system;
- classifying the first one of the material pieces as a function of the captured XRF spectrum to produce a first classification that the first one of the material pieces is composed of a low copper content aluminum alloy;
- capturing a visual image of the first one of the material pieces with the vision system;
- analyzing the captured visual image to determine if the first one of the material pieces is a thin strip material piece;
- changing the first classification to a second classification when the first one of the material pieces is determined to be a thin strip material piece, wherein the second classification is that the first one of the material pieces is composed of a high copper content aluminum alloy;
- and
- sorting the first one of the material pieces as a function of the second classification.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.