Patents Assigned to SRC Vision, Inc.
  • Patent number: 6152282
    Abstract: A laned conveyor apparatus includes an infeed roller and an outfeed roller rotatably mounted to a frame in spaced apart relation for movably supporting a flexible product-carrying belt that forms a closed loop about the rollers to define a conveying region having a length and a width. A plurality of elastic separating bands are removably positioned around the rollers and the product-carrying belt and spaced apart at intervals along the width of the conveying region to form lanes along the length of the conveying region. The separating bands contact an outer surface of the product-carrying belt to form a frictional interface with the product-carrying belt that causes the separating bands to move in coordination with movement of the product-carrying belt. A guide mechanism mounted to the frame includes multiple guide features spaced apart at intervals along the width of the conveying region for guiding the separating bands so that the lanes are accurately and precisely positioned in relation to the frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2000
    Assignee: SRC Vision, Inc.
    Inventors: James Ewan, Philip L. Hoffman
  • Patent number: 6003681
    Abstract: A stabilizing system stabilizes light-weight articles carried on conveyors for automated bulk processing equipment. In a preferred embodiment, the light-weight articles, such as, for example, tobacco leaf products or wood chips, are moved and stabilized along a conveyor from a first infeed end to a second discharge end where they are projected in-air along a trajectory through an illumination station and sorting station. An enclosed off-belt housing is provided within which the light-weight articles are projected along a controlled trajectory to be processed by the optical inspection and sorting systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 1996
    Date of Patent: December 21, 1999
    Assignee: SRC Vision, Inc.
    Inventors: John H. Wilbur, Todd Hoffman
  • Patent number: 5957306
    Abstract: An air decelerator for an inspection and sorting system employing pneumatic ejectors, comprising an air plenum adapted to generally cause a stream of air to flow in a direction opposing acceptable articles moving in a trajectory, and thereby decelerate the velocity of the articles to reduce the impact of the articles when they come into contact with the receiving surface to minimize damage to the articles caused by the impact.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 28, 1999
    Assignee: SRC Vision, Inc.
    Inventor: Philip L. Hoffman
  • Patent number: 5893451
    Abstract: A catenary conveyor belt support is provided in a conveyor system for automated bulk processing equipment. The conveyor belt launches bulk articles along a trajectory from one end to a processing station. The upper surface of the conveyor belt at one end thereof is angled with respect to a horizontal plane and determines the launch angle of the trajectory along which the articles travel. The support holds constant the catenary shape of the belt and, thus, the launch angle of the trajectory regardless of the load thereon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 1997
    Date of Patent: April 13, 1999
    Assignee: SRC Vision, Inc.
    Inventor: James Ewan
  • Patent number: 5884775
    Abstract: A system and method of operation performing automated optical inspection to remove peel-bearing defective potato pieces from a random mixture of peel-bearing defective and acceptable potato pieces use near infrared light as a source of illumination. The system implements a method of illuminating the mixture with near infrared light, detecting light reflected by the potato pieces under inspection, identifying defective potato piece surface regions based on the detected reflections, and removing the defective items from the mixture. The system and method the system implements permit the inspection of peel bearing potato pieces for the presence of peel covered defects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 1996
    Date of Patent: March 23, 1999
    Assignee: SRC Vision, Inc.
    Inventor: Duncan Campbell
  • Patent number: 5862919
    Abstract: The sorting system provides a high degree of sorting accuracy even in high throughput sorting applications such as high speed wood chip sorting. In one embodiment, a sorting apparatus (10) includes a shaker (12) for distributing stock material, a spectrographic analyzer (14) for identifying unacceptable material in a product stream, an ejector (16) for diverting unacceptable material from the product stream, a three-zone sorting receptacle (18) and a recirculating system (20) for returning a selected portion of the sorter output for an additional pass by the analyzer (14) and ejector (16). The three-zone sorting receptacle (18) divides the product stream into an accept portion, a rejection portion, and an ambiguous portion including both acceptable product and unacceptable material. The ambiguous portion is re-sorted for improved accuracy at high throughput levels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 1996
    Date of Patent: January 26, 1999
    Assignee: SRC Vision, Inc.
    Inventor: Neal P. Eason
  • Patent number: 5808305
    Abstract: Fruit defects of interest in the production of prunes are identified based on characteristics of illumination reflected by the fruit. Various reflection characteristics can be used in this regard including near infrared reflectivity and polarization state of the reflected illumination. In one embodiment, the apparatus (10) of the present invention includes a transport system (12) for transporting fruit (14) through an inspection zone (16), an illumination system (18) for illuminating the fruit (14), a detector system (20) for detecting reflected illumination (21), a sorting system (22) for separating defective fruit from good fruit, and a control system (24) for controlling operation of the sorting system (22) based on signals from the detector system (20) and transport system (12). The signals from the detector system can be improved by treating the fruit inorder to diminish the chlorophyll response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 1996
    Date of Patent: September 15, 1998
    Assignee: SRC Vision, Inc.
    Inventors: Cliff Leidecker, Park Squyres, Duncan Campbell
  • Patent number: 5791497
    Abstract: A method of separating selected fruit from a volume of fruit is based on the reflectivity of the selected fruit. The method utilizes an automated optical inspection and sorting system to illuminate a volume of fruit including cranberries characterized by a spectral power distribution in the infrared spectral region. The system detects reflections of wavelengths of the illumination in the infrared spectral region, identifies the selected fruit based on the detected reflectivity, and sorts the selected fruit from the volume of fruit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 1996
    Date of Patent: August 11, 1998
    Assignee: SRC Vision, Inc.
    Inventors: Duncan Campbell, H. Parks Squyres
  • Patent number: 5675416
    Abstract: A sorting system (10) propels a stream of randomly arranged PET and PVC articles (12, 14) through an inspection zone (20) including a first light polarizer/analyzer combination (24, 26), an article-detecting gap (G), and a second light polarizer/analyzer combination (28, 30). The first and second polarizer/analyzer combinations are oriented to extinguish normally incident light in the absence of articles in the inspection zone and are offset 45 degrees relative to each other such that at least one polarizer/analyzer combination detects a principal axis of birefringence of PET articles. The gap is employed to detect the presence of an article in the inspection zone. A video camera (22) includes first, second, and third CCD arrays (58, 60, 62) positioned to receive respective light rays (48, 64, 50) from the first light polarizer/analyzer combination, the gap, and the second light polarizer/analyzer combination and to generate first, second, and third video signals representative of the light each receives.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 1996
    Date of Patent: October 7, 1997
    Assignee: SRC Vision, Inc.
    Inventors: Duncan B. Campbell, Carl D. Christy, H. Parks Squyres, Steven D. Lancaster