Arrangement and nethod for counting articles

Abstract

A method and an arrangement for detecting and counting articles are disclosed, performing the steps of: providing a detecting station arranged along a passageway for the articles, the detecting station being adapted to establish at least a scanning radiation beam at a cross section of the passageway; passing articles past the detecting station, the detecting station detecting an article upon sensing at least a partial interruption of the scanning radiation beam; and obtaining a count of the detected articles through the passageway, wherein the detecting station include first and second detecting assembly arranged at a predetermined distance from each other along the direction of travel of the articles, which first and second detecting assembly establish a respective scanning radiation beam on a first, respectively second scanning plane at a corresponding cross section of the passageway, and wherein at least a first predetermined reference section of the articles is detected at each scanning plane; a travelling speed of each article is calculated based on the time used by the at least one reference section of the article to travel the predetermined distance between the first and the second scanning planes; at least a second predetermined reference section of the articles, which is separate from the first reference section, is detected at least at one of the first and second scanning plane; and a count of the articles is obtained by calculating a length thereof from the calculated travelling speed and by calculating the time used by the article to cross at least one of said first and second scanning plane.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.