Laser system for pellet-shaped articles

A conveying and inspecting apparatus for pellet-shaped articles, said apparatus comprising:

• a conveyer to convey a plurality of pellet shaped articles in a transport direction along a an endless loop, said conveyer being provided with a plurality of rows of receiving pockets, each said row being structured to receive multiple ones of said pellet-shaped articles, each said row being oriented substantially transverse to the transport direction;
• an inspection unit provided outside the endless loop, to sense a first predetermined characteristic of the plurality of pellet-shaped articles;
• and
• a pneumatic sorting mechanism, downstream from the inspection unit and positioned inside the endless loop, to individually sort the plurality of pellet-shaped articles from at least a selected said row of the conveyer into an accept bin or a reject bin depending on whether the first predetermined characteristic is sensed by the inspection unit.

An apparatus for processing and inspecting pellet-shaped articles, comprising:

• a conveyer mechanism structured to convey a plurality of pellet-shaped articles in a transport direction along a looped path, said conveyer mechanism including a plurality of rows of receiving pockets, each said row being configured to receive multiple ones of said pellet-shaped articles, each said row being oriented substantially transverse to the transport direction;
• a processing unit provided along the looped path and structured to provide a predetermined characteristic to the plurality of pellet-shaped articles;
• and
• an inspection unit provided downstream of the processing unit external to the looped path, the inspection unit being configured to sense the predetermined characteristic provided to each of the plurality of pellet-shaped articles;
• and
• a pneumatic mechanism, downstream from the inspection unit and positioned within the looped path, structured to individually accept or reject each of the plurality of pellet-shaped articles in each of said rows depending on whether the predetermined characteristic on the article is sensed by the inspection unit.

A conveyer apparatus comprising:

• a conveyer mechanism including a plurality of carrier bars, each carrier bar being structured to simultaneously convey a plurality of pellet-shaped articles along a predetermined path, each carrier bar including a through hole in communication with the pocket;
• a first camera unit positioned adjacent a first side of the conveyer mechanism, the first camera unit being configured to simultaneously sense a first predetermined characteristic of the plurality of pellet-shaped articles;
• and
• a pneumatic sorting mechanism, downstream from the first camera unit, the sorting mechanism being structured to individually guide movement of at least a selected one of the plurality of pellet-shaped articles from at least a selected one of the plurality of carrier bars into an accept bin or a reject bin depending on whether the first predetermined characteristic is sensed by the first camera unit, wherein the pneumatic sorting mechanism includes a plurality of pneumatic conduits that is equal to a number of pockets in each carrier bar, each said pneumatic conduit being in selective communication with a respective one of said pockets via the through hole.