Cup Conveyor Curved Path Centrifugal Sorting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fruit and vegetable sorting devices face challenges in achieving precise and efficient sorting while maintaining high throughput, as they often result in inaccurate information gathering and sorting due to overfeeding and variable product dimensions, leading to products straddling cups and distorted information.
Innovation Solution
A sorting device with a conveyor system comprising a train of cups along a path with first and second linear parts connected by a curve, where information pickup means are arranged in the curve, allowing cups to move apart and ensuring each product is accurately positioned for reliable information collection and sorting, with mechanisms for eliminating supernumerary fruits and precise weighing for mass-based sorting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the feeding speed is drastically reduced to ensure one fruit per cup, then the positioning accuracy and information gathering precision improve, but the sorting speed and productivity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a curved section in the conveyor path where cups are spaced apart. This curvature allows cups to move apart naturally, ensuring that only one fruit per cup is measured accurately while maintaining high feeding speed. The curved geometry creates centrifugal effects that prevent multiple fruits from being simultaneously positioned in measurement cups, thus resolving the contradiction between measurement precision and productivity.
2Productivity
If the cups are closely spaced to maintain high throughput, then the productivity improves, but the information gathering accuracy deteriorates due to products straddling cups
Solution Approach 1:
The curved section of the conveyor creates a natural spacing mechanism where cups are temporarily separated during the measurement phase. This curvature-induced spacing ensures that even at high throughput speeds, each measurement cup contains only one fruit, eliminating the straddling problem and maintaining measurement accuracy while preserving high productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs dynamic spacing of cups along the conveyor path, with varying distances between cups in different sections. In the curved measurement section, cups are spaced further apart to ensure single-fruit containment, while in other sections they may be closer to maximize throughput. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction between productivity and measurement precision.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the cup dimensions are not perfectly adapted to product dimensions, then the adaptability to variable product sizes improves, but the positioning accuracy deteriorates causing products to straddle cups
Solution Approach 1:
The curved conveyor section creates a physical constraint that forces proper positioning of products in cups regardless of cup-product dimension matching. The centrifugal effect and curved geometry naturally eject products that are not properly contained, ensuring that only correctly positioned single fruits remain in measurement cups, thus maintaining measurement precision while accommodating variable product dimensions.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables precise, fast, and efficient sorting of fruits and vegetables regardless of their dimensions, maintaining high throughput by ensuring accurate information gathering and reliable product positioning, while eliminating supernumerary fruits through centrifugal acceleration and curved path design.
Implementation Method 1
The arrangement of the means of collecting information in the curve offers several advantages: the cups move apart in the curve so that the products which straddle the cups are naturally ejected from the cups
Data Source
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AI summary
The device has a conveying unit (A) including a train of cups (5) and extending according to a trajectory, which includes two linear parts (1, 3). The linear parts are connected together by a curved part (2). A belt conveyer (8) feeds the products to sort based on the information acquired by a weighing plate (11). A selection unit selects and removes the products according to acquired information. The weighing plate is placed in the curved part. The conveying unit forms a closed-loop. The belt conveyer is arranged to introduce the products in an entry of one of the linear parts.