High throughput sorting system
US5862919A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 10, 1996 |
| Grant date | Jan 26, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 10, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY10S209/939
- WIPO fieldChemical engineering
- WIPO sectorChemistry
Abstract
The sorting system provides a high degree of sorting accuracy even in high throughput sorting applications such as high speed wood chip sorting. In one embodiment, a sorting apparatus (10) includes a shaker (12) for distributing stock material, a spectrographic analyzer (14) for identifying unacceptable material in a product stream, an ejector (16) for diverting unacceptable material from the product stream, a three-zone sorting receptacle (18) and a recirculating system (20) for returning a selected portion of the sorter output for an additional pass by the analyzer (14) and ejector (16). The three-zone sorting receptacle (18) divides the product stream into an accept portion, a rejection portion, and an ambiguous portion including both acceptable product and unacceptable material. The ambiguous portion is re-sorted for improved accuracy at high throughput levels.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.