Roll sorting apparatus

Apparatus for sorting articles comprising:

• a conveyor having a plurality of longitudinally spaced rollers, each roller being rotatable about its central axis and cooperating with a next-adjacent roller to define a plurality of transversely extending channels, each channel being adapted to carry a plurality of randomly disposed articles therein, a viewing zone being defined within each channel;
• a drive arrangement for advancing the conveyor through predetermined portion of a viewed area during a predetermined time frame, the drive arrangement simultaneously rotating the rollers to cause the articles carried in each transverse channel to rotate through the viewing zone defined therein;
• a viewer for viewing the viewed area and for detecting light reflected therefrom;
• means associated with the viewer for generating, on an electrical image plane, an electrical image of light reflected from the viewed area, the electrical image plane having N lines therein;
• a scanning arrangement associated with the electrical image generating means for scanning a predetermined number of lines of the electrical image plane during each time frame, including the scan line corresponding to the electrical image of each viewing zone within the viewed area during that time frame;
• a characteristic signal generator associated with the scanning arrangement for generating, for each viewing zone within the viewed area during each time frame, a first electrical characteristic signal representative of the presence and location of each article within that viewing zone and a second electrical characteristic signal representative of the presence of a predetermined physical characteristic on the portion of each article within that viewing zone;
• a line selector network for selecting, during each time frame, the line on the electrical image plane corresponding to each viewing zone;
• a line transmitting arrangement associated with the line selector for transmitting electrical characteristic signals representative of each article in the viewing zone corresponding to the line on the electrical image plane selected by the line selector network;
• a processor adapted to receive and process characteristic signals representative of each article within each viewing zone and, after a predetermined number of time frames, to generate an electrical classification signal representative of the acceptability of each article within each viewing zone, and, if an article is classified as unacceptable, to actuate the appropriate one of a plurality of ejector elements in accordance with the location of each unacceptable article;
• and,
• a plurality of ejector elements substantially coextensive with the transverse dimension of each viewing zone and responsive to the processor to eliminate articles classified as unacceptable thereby.

A method for sorting articles comprising the steps of:

• rotating an article through a viewing zone while simultaneously longitudinally displacing the viewing zone through a viewed area;
• generating, on an electrical image plane, an electrical image of the viewed area;
• scanning the electrical image plane once during every predetermined time frame;
• generating during each time frame an electrical characteristic signal representative of a predetermined physical characteristic on the portion of the surface of each article in each viewing zone during that time frame;
• selecting, during each time frame, the part of the electrical image plane corresponding to a predetermined viewing zone;
• generating an electrical classification signal for each article if the proportion of the surface area thereof exhibiting the predetermined physical characteristic exceeds a predetermined reference standard;
• and,
• removing articles classified as unacceptable.

A method for sorting articles comprising the steps of:

• randomly depositing an array of articles on a roller conveyor;
• rotating the articles through a viewing zone while simultaneously and longitudinally displacing the viewing zone through a viewed area;
• generating, on an electrical image plane, an electrical image of the viewed area;
• scanning the electrical image plane once during every predetermined time frame;
• generating during each time frame an electrical characteristic signal representative of a predetermined physical characteristic on the portion of the surface of each article in each viewing zone during that time frame;
• selecting, during each time frame, the part of the electrical image plane corresponding to a predetermined viewing zone;
• generating an electrical classification signal for each article if the proportion of the surface area thereof exhibiting the predetermined physical characteristic exceeds a predetermined reference standard;
• and
• removing articles classified as unacceptable.