Conveyors: power-driven – With means to facilitate working – treating – or inspecting...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-27
2003-02-18
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
With means to facilitate working, treating, or inspecting...
C198S458000, C209S588000, C209S912000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06520311
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multi-row type online internal quality inspection device for non-destructively examining and measuring the inside of objects, such as agricultural products, which are transported and placed one by one on numerous receiving trays arranged in many rows and columns on an endless chain conveyor, by projecting light rays from many lamps on them and by detecting a reflection light which is diffused and reflected from the inside of each of the agricultural products, or a light transmitted through the inside of the product, and by inspecting the internal quality on the basis of the light information thus obtained.
The objects applicable to the internal quality inspection by the above-stated device include, for example, fishery products, such as pearl oysters and fish, and meat of stock farming, etc. However, the following description of this invention is given, by way of example, in connection with the internal inspection of an agricultural product.
2. Description of Related Art
Means for measuring the internal quality of objects such as agricultural products (hereinafter will be referred to as inspection objects) using light rays has been variously contrived to operate by different methods. Such different methods include a reflection light method whereby information on the internal quality is detected through a reflection light obtained from the inspection object by projecting thereon light rays which include near infrared rays, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. HEI 6-30068; and a transmission light method whereby the internal quality information is detected from a transmission light obtained through the inspection objects by projecting a light on the objects, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. HEI 7-229840).
These methods relate to detecting and measuring means which consists of transport means for conveying the inspection objects as well as light projecting and light receiving devices for detecting the internal quality information. However, the disclosure made in each of the Japanese laid-open patent applications merely shows the transport means as a single strip of simple transport conveyor arranged to convey inspection objects in a row.
The inventors of the present patent application, therefore, have developed transport means suited for an internal quality inspection device including receiving trays for sorting and screening and an agricultural product screening (and sorting) device. The transport means and the screening device were disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2891973 and has been put into commercial practice.
The inventors further developed a device arranged to be capable of efficiently obtaining information on the internal quality of inspection objects, irrespective of their sizes, inspection items and kinds, by projecting light over a wide range of the inspection objects with the quantity of light to be projected on the inspection objects increased. This device were disclosed in Japanese Patent Applications No. HEI 11-173916 and No. HEI 11-271151.
In order to inspect the inspection objects in large quantity at sorting and packaging facilities, the above-stated device must be installed in a large number. However, the arrangement of light-projecting and light-receiving means of the device necessitates a transport path to be arranged to increase the dimension of each row of a plurality of receiving trays in the transverse or lateral direction of the transport path. Then, since the spacing intervals between the rows and columns cannot be decreased, the transport (conveyor) path requires a larger installation space, which necessitates some expansion of an existing building of the facilities.
Conventional screening and sorting devices are generally arranged to select and sort or classify the inspection products by grades by detecting and measuring the appearance grade, size and weight of them without any device for detecting internal quality information. The devices of this kind are popularly arranged, at many sorting and packaging facilities, to use a multi-row type sorting conveyor having object receiving trays laterally arranged in each row, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. SHO 46-26805. The sorting conveyor of this type is generally installed in combination with an automatic supply device which is arranged at a starting part of the conveyor to automatically supply, for example, agricultural products coming from a preceding process. Therefore, the conventional sorting conveyor is suited for processing the products in large quantity. However, the rows of receiving trays on the conveyor are narrowly spaced from each other. Therefore, it has been impossible to arrange, in combination with the conveyor, any light-projecting and receiving means that is arranged to project the rays of light on the agricultural products on each of the receiving trays over a wide range of the peripheral part of each of the agricultural products.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention is directed to solve the problems of the prior art described above. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a multi-row type online internal quality inspection device to be interposed in between an existing automatic supply device arranged to supply inspection objects after a preceding process and an existing conveyor for a subsequent process of screening and sorting the inspection objects by measuring and checking them by their appearance or external quality, such as weight, shape, size or the degree of color, for example, at sorting and packaging facilities. The internal quality inspection device to be provided according to this invention for inspecting the internal quality of the inspection object is aimed to economically arrange it to carry out the interposed internal quality inspection process by utilizing the existing automatic supply device and the existing conveyor for the subsequent process in combination as they are.
More specifically, the multi-row type online internal quality inspection device according to this invention comprises transport means having a transport starting part in which a plurality of transport columns of inspection objects are arranged to coincide in position with the inspection object supply columns of an existing automatic supply device and a transport ending part in which the transport columns are arranged to coincide in position with the inspection object sending columns of the existing conveyor for a subsequent process; and an inspection area comprises light projecting means for projecting light rays on each of inspection objects and light receiving means for receiving and detecting a transmission light coming through the inspection objects. The inspection area is interposed in between the transport starting part and the transport ending part. In the inspecting area, the light ray is projected on each of adjacently arranged inspection objects without having any interference of one object with another, so that the internal quality of each of the inspection objects can be accurately examined and inspected by the multi-row type online internal quality inspection device according to this invention.
The multi-row type online internal quality inspection device according to the present invention comprises:
transport means for conveying a plurality of inspection objects in a plurality of rows, said transport means including an inspection area;
light projecting means arranged at predetermined positions in said inspection area to project light rays on the inspection objects set side by side in each of said rows and conveyed by said transport means;
light receiving means arranged at said inspection area to receive transmission light coming through said inspection objects,
wherein said transport means comprises a conveyor having left and right conveyor chains endlessly arranged to circularly travel in parallel on left and right sides of said transport means along chain rails;
a pl
Haraguchi Kazuo
Maeda Hiromu
Ellis Christopher P.
Reed Smith LLP
Sharma Rashmi
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