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US 6,727,990 B1Granted
Method and apparatus for monitoring and analyzing the surface of floated material
OwnerAntti Niemiinventor
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OwnerAntti Niemiinventor
Estimating the term…
At the separation of different minerals from the ores by means of flotation, it belongs to known art to monitor a larger part of the uppermost froth layer in the flotation cell by means of a video camera whose signals are analyzed in a digital computer, in order to detect the structure and color of the froth. The new method and apparatus direct and limit the monitoring and analysis to the surface of the floated material within a fixed, narrow strip which is parallel to the overflow edge of the cell and within which the material surface passing it is homogeneous in the stationary state. The said strip thus presents a renewing sample of the surface at the location in question, which sample represents the stationary state in the average sense. The strip is subjected to homogeneous illumination, which may meet the strip at different angles depending on the primary object, i.e. whether the color or structure is being determined. By means of a repeatedly reading semiconductor line array camera, the image of the strip is formed and converted to electric black/white or multicolor signals from which the structure or color quantities are determined in digital computer. The monitoring and analysis can be directed to both the surface of the froth layer and the surface of the froth slurry flowing down from the overflow edge.
A method for monitoring and analyzing the surface of floated material, in which an optical image of said surface is formed continuously and converted repeatedly, optoelectrically to electrical signals which are read, transferred and processed digitally for determination and output of quantities corresponding to physical and statistical properties of said material and surface, and in which said floated material is the flotation froth upon a flotation cell, characterized in that said image is at the optoelectrical conversion limited to a narrow strip with sides of the same form as the overflow edge of the flotation cell and divided into a chain of image elements, and that the elements of the detected, electrical signals correspond individually to said image elements and that, corresponding optically to said image being limited to a narrow strip, a strip of the same form on said surface is homogeneously illuminated and everywhere at an equal distance from the overflow edge of a flotation cell.
A method for monitoring and analyzing the surface of floated material, in which an optical image of said surface is formed continuously and converted repeatedly, optoelectrically to electrical signals which are read, transferred and processed digitally for determination and output of quantities corresponding to physical and statistical properties of said material and surface, characterized in that said floated material is the froth slurry flowing down from the overflow edge of flotation cell, that said image is at the optoelectrical conversion limited to a rectangle and divided to sets of image elements representing different color components, and that sets of elements of the detected, electrical signals are produced corresponding to said sets of image elements representing different color components.
An apparatus for monitoring and analyzing the surface of floated material, comprising:
An apparatus for monitoring and analyzing the surface of floated material, characterized in that the apparatus comprises:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.