Patent ID: 8421856
Filing Date: 2013-04-16
Classification: B07C

Abstract:
1. An automatic sorting system for identifying and sorting non-homogenous material, the system comprising: a conveyor belt having a conveying surface traveling along a longitudinal direction for conveying bulk material to be identified and sorted, the conveyor belt having a first end for receiving said bulk material and a second end for releasing sorted material; an identification unit cooperable with the conveyor belt and placed above the conveying surface thereof for identifying material traveling therealong, the identification unit comprising: at least one pair of projectors, each projector being configured for projecting a beam of light downwardly towards the conveying surface so as to define an intersecting area of light, at a given height above said conveying surface, and onto a given material to be identified, so that a portion of projected light may be reflected back from said given material and upwardly towards the identification unit; at least one lens positioned about the identification unit for receiving said portion of reflected light from the given material to be identified; a first processing unit operatively linked to the at least one lens for carrying a spectral analysis of the portion of reflected light captured by the at least one lens so as to determine the nature of the given material; and a second processing unit operatively linked to the first processing unit for comparing results of said spectral analysis with corresponding data associated to a variety of different materials stored in a given database of the second processing unit; and a sorting unit operatively linked to the second processing unit and operatively cooperating with the second end of the conveyor belt so as to sort material released from said second end of the conveyor belt depending on signals received from the second processing unit, wherein the identification unit comprises a calibration device having a calibrating surface removably positionable within the range of the at least one pair of projectors so that a portion of reflected light may be reflected back from the calibration surface and towards the at least one lens so as to calibrate the identification unit.