PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR ANALYZING BULK QUANTITIES OF GRAIN ONLINE AND SEPARATING THE GRAIN INTO BATCHES

Claims

The grain sorting process and apparatus (1) includes a grain inlet hopper (2) for conveying bulk cereal grains to the apparatus (1) via an in-line measuring station (3) that analyzes selected parameters of the grain conveyed through the inlet hopper (2). The grain inlet hopper (2) discharges onto a horizontal grain sorting conveyor (4) that discharges the grain into storage silos (5, 6) in response to one or more measured grain parameters determined at the measuring station (3). The measuring station (3) has a sensor unit (7) that includes a near-infrared light source for emitting light onto the grain conveyed through the grain inlet hopper (2) or through the grain sorting conveyor (4). The light is reflected from the grain, and the reflected light is detected by the sensor (7) to provide a spectrum of the grain.A spectrometer (8) connected to the sensor unit (7) converts the spectrum into one or more corresponding preselected grain parameter values. The grain parameter values ​​generated by the spectrometer (8) are sent to a controller (9). The controller (9) then controls the operation of the sorting conveyor (4) in response to the measured grain parameter values ​​to transport the cereal grain to a storage silo (5, 6) that has a grain parameter corresponding to the measured grain parameter.