Patent ID: 8247724

Claim:
Inspection apparatus comprising: a feed station comprising: a product reservoir; an essentially horizontal conveyor; a chute assembly comprising a plurality of chute sections, which are mechanically secured to form the chute assembly, said plurality of chute sections comprising at least a first chute section and a second chute section; an optical system, for inspecting a characteristic of a product piece, which optical system is positioned to inspect at an inspection zone and comprises illumination means; wherein the chute assembly is positioned below the feed station and above the inspection zone and the first chute section is positioned at an upper end of the chute assembly; and wherein the inspection apparatus is configured such that, in use: a flowable product which: is to be inspected by the inspection apparatus; and is initially contained in the product reservoir; and consists of a plurality of product pieces; is fed by the essentially horizontal conveyor to the first chute section of the chute assembly; and the flowable product subsequently flows as a product stream along each chute section successively by gravitational acceleration to a discharge end of the chute assembly; and the product stream subsequently falls from the discharge end of the chute assembly into the inspection zone; and further comprising: means for enhancing downward flow comprising the at least first and second chute sections being substantially smooth sections, not formed with alignment channels or grooves, but rather having substantially even surfaces configured such that the product moves freely both downwardly and laterally on the surfaces of the first and second chute sections; and means for facilitating differentiation between product pieces comprising the first chute section and the second chute section being mechanically secured within the chute assembly such that a step of a predetermined depth exists between the first chute section and the second chute section, and such that, in use, the product stream falls from the first chute section onto the second chute section, whereby individual product pieces tend to be separated from each other.