Abstract: The present invention relates to the use of Near-Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to the application of the measurement of constituent concentrations of chemical based products typically having covalent bonding. Such constituent products may be fat, moisture, protein, and the like typically in liquid form or colloid suspensions. More specifically, the invention is directed toward an NIR analyzer with multiple detectors with no moving parts. The invention utilizes thermal control in conjunction with normalization algorithms to allow parallel processing of the measurements between a reference and at least one sample, which may provide more accurate results. In addition, this invention has the ability to use NIR in the third overtone and allows insitu processing, with no waste stream.
Abstract: The present invention provides a method for initiating a responsive signal to a predetermined processing condition. The method relies upon generating sufficient processing data about a desired processing condition to establish a processing profile reflective of the condition. The predetermined processing condition is indexed or inputted onto the profile which, in turn, allows for automatically initiating the signal when subsequent processes achieve the indexed condition. The method is particularly applicable for determining a proper curding point in a cheese manufacture using a control computer to store and compare an indexed processing profile with an on-going plant run.