Color sorters or color sorters (sometimes called optical sorters , digital sorters, or electronic color sorters) are machines used on production lines in bulk food processing and other industries. They sort items by color, detecting passing items' colors and using mechanical or pneumatic devices to divert items with colors outside the acceptable range or to create distinct groups. [1] [2]
Color sorters are mostly used in sorting grain and other agricultural products. The rice sorting industry is the first big market. The rice sorting technology is according to the color differences of rice (husked paddy) materials, using a high-resolution CCD optical sensor to separate stones, black rice, etc. It is the final step after polishing rice with a rice polisher. The second sorting market is in use for coarse cereals, such as wheat, corn, peanuts, different kinds of beans, sesame seeds, etc. This can also include grains, seeds, cereals, pulses, coffee, and nuts. The color sorters can also be used to remove harmful plastics and metals. [1]
Optical color sorters are among the newest technologies in seed and grain processing. This equipment separates particles based on color and is often used at or near the end of the processing line, after mechanical separations, to remove impurities of similar size and density.
Machines are available from a quarter [3] to ten chutes wide. Technology range includes a simple monochromatic version, to bichromatic, NIR, InGaAs, RGB Full Color, and shape sizing.
Color sorting is used to ensure the best purity of bulk products and ensure that the strictest food hygiene and health requirements of end-products are met. [4]
Color sorters are used in the food processing industry, such as coffee, nuts, and oil crops with the goal of separating items that are discolored, toxic (such as ergot), or not as ripe as required. Compared with manual sorting, machines are more efficient than manual labor and have lower processing costs. Throughputs have increased with the use of new CCD technologies and are now up to 100 t/h.[ clarification needed ]
Color sorters are also used in the diamond industry. The transparency of the diamond is measured by the color sorter and used as a measurement of its purity, and the diamonds are mechanically sorted accordingly. This has an advantage over X-ray fluorescence methods of robotically detecting purity, since purer diamonds are less likely to fluoresce. [5]
In the mining sorting industry, color sorting is also called sensor-based sorting technology. Optical color sorters (CCD color camera) combine X-ray sorting technology and NIR (near infrared spectrometry) to pick out the impurities of ore, minerals, stone and sand products, or separate ore into two or more categories.
In the recycling industry, color sorters are widely used for plastic and glass color sorting. Color sorters can distinguish between colored and colorless plastic flakes such as polyethylene terephthalate flakes or high density polyethylene flakes, and can separate flakes by color before re-granulation. [6] For instance, a color sorter can separate non-food-grade polyethylene terephthalate from food grade. In glass recycling, a color sorter can remove various contaminants such as ceramic, stones, porcelain and metals from glass fragments. After this removal, the glass fragments can be reused as secondary raw material. Typically, belt-type color sorters are used for sorting recycling materials rather than chute-type color sorters because belt-type color sorters handle a wider variety of more irregularly shaped materials. [7]
Sorters can be divided into chute-type and belt-type color sorters. [8]
Belt-type color sorters break a smaller percentage of the material (important for nuts), and the product stays relatively static during the transport process as it moves horizontally on the belt. In the chute type, material slides on the chute because of gravity, causing collision, friction, and larger vertical movements, thus worsening the ratio of broken material. The belt structure makes the transmission smooth and stable without bouncing material.
Common belt type machine, model: 300 mm belt width, 600 mm belt width, 1000 mm belt width, 1200 mm belt width, 2000 mm belt width [9]
Chute-type color sorters are commonly used for food, as prices are lower, capacities are higher, and products can be seen more easily from both sides, which is important when a dehulled grain has hull only on one side. Chute sorters are usually applicable to specific products, as the chute is designed with special channels for this kind of material based on size and shape of the material. For example, 5 mm chutes are used for rice, grain, and plastic granules. Flat chutes are right for plastic flakes, such as PET, or milk bottle flakes.
Common vertical chute type machine, model: 64 channels, 128 channels, 192 channels, 256 channels, 320 channels, 384 channels, 512 channels, 640 channels.
Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes, including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing. Lumber has many uses beyond home building. Lumber is referred to as timber in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, while in other parts of the world the term timber refers specifically to unprocessed wood fiber, such as cut logs or standing trees that have yet to be cut.
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the properties it had in its original state. It is an alternative to "conventional" waste disposal that can save material and help lower greenhouse gas emissions. It can also prevent the waste of potentially useful materials and reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reducing energy use, air pollution and water pollution.
Paperboard is a thick paper-based material. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker than paper and has certain superior attributes such as foldability and rigidity. According to ISO standards, paperboard is a paper with a grammage above 250 g/m2, but there are exceptions. Paperboard can be single- or multi-ply.
Blanching is a cooking process in which a food, usually a vegetable or fruit, is scalded in boiling water, removed after a brief timed interval, and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water to halt the cooking process. Blanching foods helps reduce quality loss over time. Blanching is often used as a treatment prior to freezing, dehydrating, or canning vegetables or fruits to deactivate enzymes, modify texture, remove the peel and wilt tissue. The inactivation of enzymes preserves colour, flavour, and nutritional value. The process has three stages: preheating, blanching, and cooling. The most common blanching methods for vegetables/fruits are hot water and steam, while cooling is either done using cold water or cool air. Other benefits of blanching include removing pesticide residues and decreasing microbial load. Drawbacks to the blanching process can include leaching of water-soluble and heat-sensitive nutrients and the production of effluent.
Although PET is used in several applications, as of 2022 only bottles are collected at a substantial scale. The main motivations have been either cost reduction or recycle content of retail goods. An increasing amount is recycled back into bottles, the rest goes into fibres, film, thermoformed packaging and strapping. After sorting, cleaning and grinding, 'bottle flake' is obtained, which is then processed by either:
A materials recovery facility, materials reclamation facility, materials recycling facility or multi re-use facility is a specialized waste sorting and recycling system that receives, separates and prepares recyclable materials for marketing to end-user manufacturers. Generally, the main recyclable materials include ferrous metal, non-ferrous metal, plastics, paper, glass. Organic food waste is used to anaerobic digestion or composting. Inorganic inert waste is used to make building materials. Non-recyclable high calorific value waste is used to making RDF and SRF.
Plastic recycling is the processing of plastic waste into other products. Recycling can reduce dependence on landfill, conserve resources and protect the environment from plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling rates lag behind those of other recoverable materials, such as aluminium, glass and paper. From the start of plastic production through to 2015, the world produced around 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste, only 9% of which has been recycled and only ~1% has been recycled more than once. Of the remaining waste, 12% was incinerated and 79% was either sent to landfills or lost to the environment as pollution.
Foam rubber refers to rubber that has been manufactured with a foaming agent to create an air-filled matrix structure. Commercial foam rubbers are generally made of synthetic rubber, natural latex or polyurethane. Latex foam rubber, used in mattresses, is well known for its endurance. Polyurethane is a thermosetting polymer that comes from combination of Methyl di-isocyanate and polyethylene and some other chemical additives.
Coated paper is paper that has been coated by a mixture of materials or a polymer to impart certain qualities to the paper, including weight, surface gloss, smoothness, or reduced ink absorbency. Various materials, including kaolinite, calcium carbonate, bentonite, and talc, can be used to coat paper for high-quality printing used in the packaging industry and in magazines.
Plastics extrusion is a high-volume manufacturing process in which raw plastic is melted and formed into a continuous profile. Extrusion produces items such as pipe/tubing, weatherstripping, fencing, deck railings, window frames, plastic films and sheeting, thermoplastic coatings, and wire insulation.
A screw conveyor or auger conveyor is a mechanism that uses a rotating helical screw blade, called a "flighting", usually within a tube, to move liquid or granular materials. They are used in many bulk handling industries. Screw conveyors in modern industry are often used horizontally or at a slight incline as an efficient way to move semi-solid materials, including food waste, wood chips, aggregates, cereal grains, animal feed, boiler ash, meat, bone meal, municipal solid waste, and many others. The first type of screw conveyor was the Archimedes' screw, used since ancient times to pump irrigation water.
A plastic bottle is a bottle constructed from high-density or low density plastic. Plastic bottles are typically used to store liquids such as water, soft drinks, motor oil, cooking oil, medicine, shampoo, milk, ink, etc. They come in a range of sizes, from very small bottles to large carboys. Consumer blow molded containers often have integral handles or are shaped to facilitate grasping.
Home-stored product entomology is the study of insects that infest foodstuffs stored in the home. It deals with the prevention, detection and eradication of pests.
Optical sorting is the automated process of sorting solid products using cameras and/or lasers.
Spirit DataCine is a telecine and a motion picture film scanner. This device is able to transfer 16mm and 35mm motion picture film to NTSC or PAL television standards or one of many High-definition television standards. With the data transfer option a Spirit DataCine can output DPX data files. The image pick up device is a solid state charge-coupled device. This eliminated the need for glass vacuum tube CRTs used on older telecines. The units can transfer negative film, primetime, intermediate film and print film, stock. One option is a Super 8 gate for the transfer of Super 8 mm film. With a sound pick up option, optical 16mm and 35mm sound can be reproduced, also 16mm magnetic strip sound. The unit can operate stand alone or be controlled by a scene by scene color corrector. Ken Burns created The Civil War, a short documentary film included in the DVD release, on how he used the Spirit DataCine to transfer and remaster this film. The operator of the unit is called a Colorist or Colorist Assistant. The Spirit DataCine has become the standard for high-end real-time film transfer and scanning. Over 370 units are used in post-production facilities around the world. Most current film productions are transferred on Spirit DataCines for Television, Digital television, Cable television, Satellite television, Direct-to-video, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, pay-per-view, In-flight entertainment, Stock footage, Dailies, Film preservation, digital intermediate and digital cinema. The Spirit DataCine is made by DFT Digital Film Technology GmbH in Darmstadt, Germany.
Sensor-based sorting, is an umbrella term for all applications in which particles are detected using a sensor technique and rejected by an amplified mechanical, hydraulic or pneumatic process.
In agriculture, grain quality depends on the use of the grain. In ethanol production, the chemical composition of grain such as starch content is important, in food and feed manufacturing, properties such as protein, oil and sugar are significant, in the milling industry, soundness is the most important factor to consider when it comes to the quality of grain. For grain farmers, high germination percentage and seed dormancy are the main features to consider. For consumers, properties such as color and flavor are most important.
A steel belt is a type of conveyor belt used in many industries such as food, chemical, wood processing, and transportation.
Elmhurst 1925 is a plant-based food and beverage company located in Elma, New York. The company manufactures and sells non-dairy, plant-based milks made from nuts, grains, and seeds. The first four nutmilks – almond, cashew, hazelnut, and walnut – debuted at Natural Products Expo West in March 2017. A number of additional products have launched since, including their line of unsweetened plant milks made with only two or three ingredients, award winning barista editions, dairy-free creamers, and single serve ready-to-drink options.
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