Sprinkling spices such as cumin and chili on the skewers, diners may not have thought that there is an important subdivision track behind the good edible spices - color sorters.
In a color sorter company in China, we saw different colors of cumin placed in storage boxes respectively, and the precise and efficient sorting was amazing.
Can sort food and minerals
The color sorter is a device that automatically sorts out different-colored particles in granular materials using photoelectric detection technology based on the differences in the optical properties of the materials.
The color sorter is mainly divided into four parts: feeding system, photoelectric system, electronic control system, and sorting system. Among them, the "photoelectric system" is the core part of the color sorter, which is mainly composed of light source, background plate, sensor and other devices. The light source will produce different reflective characteristics when it shines on the measured material. The background plate provides a reference signal, and its reflective characteristics are equivalent to qualified products, while defective products will be fed back to the electronic control system for the next step of processing.
You can imagine the color sorter as a person. The photoelectric system is equivalent to the human eye, which is used to observe objects. When a defective product is seen, it will be blown out with a spray valve.
In fact, the color sorter machine is also an imported product.
In the 1980s, because grain needed to be screened by machines to improve quality and efficiency, China began to introduce rice color sorters. The brands were mainly Japanese Anzai and Toyo and British Sotex.
In the 1990s, China began to study the manufacturing technology of color sorters. In 1994, the Nuclear Industry Physical and Chemical Engineering Research Institute developed the MMS-24A color sorter, which filled the gap in the development and production of domestic color sorters. In 2000, China developed a digital double-sided color sorter, which broke the monopoly of foreign brands in the domestic market.
In media reports, color sorters are generally classified as agricultural machinery equipment manufacturers. Color sorters can not only sort grain crops such as rice and wheat, but also sort ores, glass, plastics, etc., with a very wide range. Overall, the agricultural field is still the main application market for color sorters in my country. The penetration rate of color sorters in the field of industrial material and industrial product sorting is still relatively low, and it is in its infancy, with great market potential.
In 2021, the output of color sorters in my country was about 51,100 units, with domestic exports of 9,724 units and imports of 20 units during the same period, and the total domestic demand was 41,400 units.
The reason for the small import data is that the rise of mainstream CCD color sorters in China has squeezed the foreign high-end color sorter market, and many foreign color sorter companies have established joint ventures or wholly-owned enterprises in China.
The more important reason is that my country's color sorter companies have occupied the main domestic market.
The reason why Hefei has developed so rapidly in the color sorter track can be traced back to Meiya Optoelectronics, an Anhui company.
Suffering from the monopoly of foreign brands, the Chinese research team developed China's first rice color sorter with independent intellectual property rights in 1996. After 2000, it successively launched more than 10 new products to fill the domestic gaps, including digital color sorter (2004), color wide-use color sorter (2005), digital intelligent tea color sorter (2008), X-ray foreign body detector (2009), intelligent X-ray tire automatic inspection machine (2011), Internet + artificial intelligence color sorter (2015), and multi-spectral integrated color sorter (2020).
Driven by the industry leader, the gathering of production enterprises has also promoted the iteration of color sorter technology, especially high-speed and high-resolution CCD technology. Because of the use of high-definition CCD color sorting lens, the color sorting accuracy has been increased from 2 square millimeters of photoelectric color sorter to 0.08 square millimeters, and the color sorting accuracy has been greatly improved.
However, there are still some shortcomings in the development of color sorters, such as inaccurate material sorting, high requirements for the installation environment, and more importantly, the shortage of "process talents". The design and installation of color sorters require accurate understanding and experience accumulation of the landing scene. If it is not considered carefully, it will affect the use effect. In addition, there are some flaws in production, inspection, and installation, and the working reliability of the machine will also be affected.
A color sorter R&D engineer believes that if there is a lack of talents who can guarantee the process in the manufacturing process of the color sorter, some large projects will be difficult to implement, such as the data cannot guarantee consistency and continuity, and the product life will be relatively low.
Post time: Jan-20-2025