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Singulating and orienting slide conveyor
| Details |
Inventors: Long, William C.;
Assignee: ESM International Inc. (Houston, TX)
Primary Examiner: Dayoan; D. Glenn
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Vaden, Eickenroht, Thompson & Boulware
A slide conveyor for an optical sorting machine is disclosed wherein the conveyor is gently twisted over its length by about 85 degrees. The conveyor is channel-like in that it has two sides converging at its U-shaped bottom at an acute angle. The angle has a radius much smaller than the radius of the convex flat side, but slightly larger than the radius of the smallest edge angle radius of the slightly convex, disc-like products being conveyed. At the upper end, the centerline of the bottom angle is vertical and at its lower end, positioned just above the viewing station of the optical sorter, the centerline is about 5 degrees above horizontal. The conveyor slopes at a grade of about 75 degrees. The conveyor both singulates and orients the products conveyed. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION The slide conveyor in accordance with the current invention can be considered as comprising four parts, namely, a bottom, an upper section, a lower section, and an intermediate section.
The bottom has a U-shaped cross section that has a radius that is much less than the radius of the convex flat side, but slightly larger than the radius of the edge of the disc-shaped products that are sorted.
The upper section of the conveyor that receives the mass of products, usually from a hopper/vibrator input means, is aligned in the normal way, that is, with a line bisecting the angle of the U-shaped bottom being perpendicular.
As the products slide down this upper section, they tend to more or less turn on edge so that they approximately line up on edge parallel with the bisecting line.
The intermediate section of the slide curves or turns slowly so that the products are still held by gravity against the bottom, but the bottom is now at an angle of about 45 degrees with respect to the top section.
Finally, the bottom section causes the emergence of the products to the optical viewing station so that the broad sides of the products are presented for optical viewing.
This means that the line of the viewing element is approximately normal or perpendicular to the approximate plane of the large sides of the products.
The gentle twist or turning or curving of the slide from the upper section to the intermediate section to the lower section is sufficiently gentle or gradual that there is no sharp delineation from one section to the next.
Products that did not completely separate themselves from each other in the upper section can be shown to accomplish such separation during the course of travelling through the intermediate and lower sections so that as they emerge they are singulated and their large, flat sides are consistently presented for viewing.
In the event of conveying products that are pointed, the points are generally oriented to be axially parallel with the U-shaped bottom at the time of exit or emergence from the lower section
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Finance 
