Measuring and testing – Sheet – woven fabric or fiber
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-03
2001-01-16
Noori, Max (Department: 2855)
Measuring and testing
Sheet, woven fabric or fiber
Reexamination Certificate
active
06173607
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the manufacture of corrugated boards generally and in particular, to the accurate assessment of the number of boards, boxes or similar items within a stack.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Corrugated boards are generally produced on an automated line in which web guiding systems are commonly used to correctly guide and tension the material on the web. Since the board material which is guided in web form is generally thin, there is a tendency for the material to wander from its correct alignment on the web. Other factors, such as material irregularity, web speed or faulty machinery, are also liable to lead to a percentage of the manufactured boards being sub-standard. Generally, these sub-standard boards are removed during the production process. Generally, the corrugated boards are stacked in piles of several hundred, commonly 400 boards per stack.
Reference is now made to
FIG. 1
which illustrates three stacks, designated
10
A,
10
B and
10
C, of manufactured boards
12
being conveyed together along the corrugated board production line, generally designated
1
. Each of the stacks contains a plurality of corrugated boards
12
, laid one on top of each other. In the typical example, shown in
FIG. 1
, stack
10
A contains more boards than stack
10
B and stack
10
C contains more boards than
10
A.
An enlarged detail of the top of stacks
10
A and
10
B is shown in
FIG. 2
, to which reference is now made. The top rows of the corrugated boards are reference
14
,
16
,
18
and
20
in stack
10
A, and
22
and
24
in stack
10
B. Stack
10
A contains two extra boards,
14
and
16
. Boards
18
and
20
of stack
10
A are aligned with boards
22
and
24
of stack
10
B.
During manufacture, the width of the boards may vary, as exaggerately illustrated in
FIG. 2
, so that board
16
is narrower than boards
14
and
18
, for example.
The depth of each corrugated board may vary so that it is not possible to measure the total height of a stack in order to calculate the number of boards contained therein.
Since substandard boards are removed during the production process from any or all of the stacks, the final number of boards in each stack will vary and furthermore, the manufacturer cannot easily determine their number. Since the purchaser is paying for a stack of 400, say, any shortfall is made up by the manufacturer. Usually, manufacturers add 10-20 extra boards to each pack to satisfy the purchaser. This over-compensation in by the manufacturer is inefficient and costly.
The applicant has realized that since each corrugated board has a characteristic but distinctive flute or “wave corrugation”, it is possible to determine the number of boards in a stack by counting the number of “wave corrugatons”. One possible system, illustrated in
FIG. 3
, utilizes a camera
30
together with a parabolic reflector
32
to “scan” a stack
34
of corrugated boards
36
. However, it was found that in order to scan the whole stack, the camera has to be placed far away from the stack. The resultant resolution was too low to accurately determine the number of boards.
An alternative configuration used a plurality of cameras, each of which scanned a portion of the stack. For example, it was round that to obtain a high enough resolution, each camera could only scan 40 boards, Since, the standard stack contains approximately 400 boards, ten cameras would be needed. In addition to being costly, it is difficult to ascertain where each camera begins and ends its “scan”. To overcome the problem of scan overlap, a “laser” pointer is additionally required.
The previous embodiments have the further disadvantage in that the line must be stationary at the time the scan takes place.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for accurately ascertaining the number of produced corrugated boards, boxes and similar items which overcomes the limitations and disadvantages of existing systems.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for accurately ascertaining the number of items within a stack of items whether static or moving on a production line.
A yet further object of the present invention is to accurately ascertaining the number of items within each of a plurality of a stack of items, adjacent to each other.
There is thus provided, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a system for determining the number of boards within a stack of boards, each board having a characteristic configuration. The system includes an imaging device attached to a moveable carriage, the imaging device being actuated to move to image the stack of boards and a processing unit, coupled to the imaging device, for identifying the characteristic configuration of each of the stack of boards from the scanned images.
Additionally, there is provided, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a system for determining the number of boards within each of a plurality of stacks of boards adjacent to each other, each board having a characteristic configuration. The system includes an imaging device attached to a moveable carriage, the imaging device being actuated to move to image the proximate stack of boards, a processing unit, coupled to the imaging device, for identifying the characteristic configuration of each of the imaged stack of boards and a height sensor coupled to the processing unit, for determining the height of each of the plurality of stacks of boards.
Furthermore, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the stack of boards are moving along a production line.
Furthermore, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the boards are corrugated boards and the common characteristic configuration is a sine-wave.
Additionally, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the movement of the imaging device is coordinated with the movement of the production line. The movement of the imaging device is generally perpendicular to the stack of boards.
Furthermore, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the height sensor is an ultrasonic sensor or a laser displacement sensor.
Furthermore, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the imaging device is a charge coupled device (CCD) camera.
Additionally, there is provided, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method for determining the number of boards within a stack of boards, each board having a common characteristic configuration. The method includes the steps of:
a) imaging the stack of boards; and
b) identifying the characteristic configuration for each of the imaged stack of boards.
This method further includes the step of measuring the height of the imaged stack of boards.
Furthermore, there is provided, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method for determining the number of boards within each of a plurality of stacks of boards adjacent to each other, each board having a common characteristic configuration. The method includes the steps of:
a) imaging the stack of boards, proximate to the imaging device;
b) identifying the characteristic configuration for each of the imaged stack of boards;
c) counting the number of boards within the imaged stack of boards;
d) measuring the height of each of the plurality of stacks of boards; and
e) comparing the measured heights of each of the plurality of stacks of boards to count the number of boards within each of the adjacent stacks of boards.
Furthermore, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the identifying step includes the steps of:
a) correcting for non-uniform illumination;
b) determining the type of sheet and type of characteristic configuration; and
c) applying a filter to the characteristic configuration shape.
The determining step includes the steps of:
a) scanning the stack a multiplicity of times; and
b) applying statis
Grimberg Ernest
Shahaf Amit
Darby & Darby
Noori Max
Opsigal Control Systems Ltd.
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