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US 7,848,484 B2Granted
Method and apparatus for sorting materials according to relative composition
AssigneeSpectramet, LLC
InventorsEdward J. Sommer, Jr., Charles E. Roos, David B. Spencer, R. Lynn Conley
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is a metal sorting device including an X-ray tube, a dual energy detector array, a microprocessor, and an air ejector array. The device senses the presence of samples in the x-ray sensing region and initiates identifying and sorting the samples. After identifying and classifying the category of a sample, at a specific time, the device activates an array of air ejectors located at specific positions in order to place the sample in the proper collection bin.
Claims4
A method of detecting and sorting materials of differing composition, comprising:
- providing a sample;
- placing the sample in a sensing region;
- irradiating the sample with a plurality of x-ray energies;
- measuring x-ray transmission values for x-rays passing through the sample;
- measuring x-ray fluorescence values for x-rays fluoresced from the sample;
- correlating the x-ray transmission measurements with the x-ray fluorescence measurements;
- determining from the correlation information on sample composition;
- transporting the sample to an air ejection array;
- and
- energizing at least one air ejector of the air ejection array in order to sort the sample based upon said determining.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.