Patent · US Expired

Cleaning and sorting bulk material

US5699724A · kind A · utility

15Cited by
14References
29Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 9, 1996
Grant dateDec 23, 1997
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 9, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC B)Performing Operations; Transporting
  • CPC primaryB07C5/3425
  • WIPO fieldChemical engineering
  • WIPO sectorChemistry

Abstract

For cleaning foodstuffs in the form of a bulk material, such as cereal grains, rice grains, soybeans, sunflower seeds, coffee beans, and the like, there is provided an optical sorting device (24, 24a, 24a') subsequent to a precleaning system (6), which enables sorting on the basis of color and/or size and/or shape. Each particle of the bulk material is allocated to a particle class determined by parameters and conveyed on a supporting surface transporting the bulk material to a reception area (43, 44, 45) for the respective particle class. To clean the bulk material, impurities and bad particles are sorted out of the product, with the product being partitioned into classes, if required.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.