JP6904462B1 - Granule inspection equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a granular material inspection apparatus provided in a pipe to which a granular material is transferred and capable of inspecting the quality of the passing granular material. A granular material inspection device provided in a pipe for a granular material to be transferred, wherein a tubular member forming an outer shell and a passage of the granular material are formed inside the tubular member, and the granular material flows down. It has an image pickup device capable of photographing an object, and the image pickup device is characterized in that it can simultaneously photograph the passage formed around the entire periphery of the image pickup device. [Selection diagram] Fig. 3

Description

The present invention relates to a granular material inspection device capable of inspecting granular materials transferred in a pipe.

Conventionally, quality inspection of raw materials received at cantry elevators, rice centers, rice mills, etc. has been performed using a self-inspection device. That is, the appearance quality of the sampled raw material is measured by using a grain discriminator, and the internal quality is measured by using a taste meter (registered trademark) or the like.

Further, as a method of measuring the quality of the granular material in the pipe, Patent Document 1 provides a window at the lower part of the inclined pipe and acquires RGB reflected light data of the continuously flowing granular material to obtain the quality. A device for performing measurement is disclosed. Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a configuration in which a pipe is branched, particles are retained at the branched portion, and data for determining humidity or protein content is acquired by a sensor arranged outside the pipe.

Japanese Patent Publication No. 2012-525575 Special Table No. 03-500208

However, the above-mentioned self-inspection device requires a large-scale device inside the building, and it is necessary to measure each sample of the received raw material with each measuring device. Furthermore, even when quality data is acquired by the measuring device installed in the above-mentioned piping, the data that can be acquired by one measuring device is limited, and it is necessary to install various measuring devices in order to acquire multiple data. is there. In addition, the method of branching a pipe as in Patent Document 2 has many problems such as a separate branching space being required.

Therefore, in view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a granular material inspection apparatus provided in a pipe to which the granular material is transferred and capable of inspecting the quality of the passing granular material.

The invention according to claim 1 of the present application is a granular material inspection device provided in a pipe for granular materials to be transferred, in which a tubular member forming an outer shell and a passage of the granular material are formed inside the tubular member. An image pickup device capable of photographing the flowing particles, and the image pickup device is capable of simultaneously photographing the passage formed around the entire periphery of the image pickup device. Is.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the image pickup apparatus is formed in an annular shape, and has an annular mirror having a mirror surface on an outer surface inclined to the center of the annulus, and the image reflected on the annular mirror. The granular material inspection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a camera capable of photographing a mirror image of the granular material.

According to the third aspect of the present application, the passage formed around the entire periphery of the image pickup apparatus is provided with an impermeable passage area partition member for partitioning the passage by a plurality of passage areas, and each passage area is provided with a non-transmissive passage area partition member. The granular material inspection apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a plurality of types of quality inspections are possible.

The invention according to claim 4 of the present application is characterized in that, of the plurality of passing areas, a part of the passing areas is a non-inspection area where granules not subject to the quality inspection can flow down. The granular material inspection apparatus according to the above.

The granular material inspection according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the distance between the imaging device and the tubular member in the passage differs in the plurality of passage areas. It is a device.

The invention according to claim 6 of the present application is characterized in that the tubular member and the imaging device are provided in an inclined manner, and the non-inspection region is arranged on the upper side of the plurality of passage areas. The granular material inspection apparatus according to claim 5.

The invention according to claim 7 of the present application is any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the tubular member is provided with a transmitted light source and / or a background light source capable of irradiating the particles with transmitted light. It is a granular material inspection apparatus described in the above.

The granular material according to claim 8, wherein the imaging apparatus is provided with a reflective light source capable of irradiating the granular material with reflected light. It is an inspection device.

In the invention according to claim 9, when the granular material is brown rice, the protein mass, the water content, the whiteness, the coloring state, and the silata state can be simultaneously determined by the photographed image of the brown rice taken by the imaging device. The granular material inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the inspection is possible.

In the invention according to claim 10, when the granular material is white rice, the protein mass, the water content, the whiteness, the coloring state, and the silata state can be simultaneously determined by the photographed image of the white rice taken by the imaging device. The granular material inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the inspection is possible.

According to the invention of claim 1, the granular material inspection device includes a tubular member forming an outer shell and an imaging device capable of forming a passage of the granular material inside the tubular member and photographing the flowing granular material. The image pickup apparatus is configured to be capable of simultaneously photographing the passages of particles formed around the entire periphery of the image pickup apparatus. According to such a configuration, it becomes possible to simultaneously photograph the granules passing through the entire circumference of the image pickup apparatus, and it is possible to photograph more granules than to photograph the granules in a plane. Further, since the granular material inspection device is provided in the pipe of the granular material to be transferred as shown in FIG. 1, it is possible to efficiently inspect the quality of the granular material during the transfer of the granular material.

According to the invention of claim 2, the image pickup apparatus is provided with an annular mirror which is formed in an annular shape and has a mirror surface on an outer surface inclined at the center of the annulus. As a result, as shown in FIG. 6, a mirror image of the granular material reflected on the annular mirror can be photographed by the area camera. In addition, the granular material inspection device 1 can be manufactured at a lower cost without the trouble of arranging a plurality of lenses. Furthermore, when acquiring an RGB image and an NIR image at the same time, by using an annular mirror, it is possible to suppress the influence of the refractive index due to the difference in wavelength, and the RGB image and the NIR image of almost the same portion of the granular material can be obtained. It is possible to acquire at the same time.

According to the invention of claim 3, as shown in FIG. 5, it is possible to partition the passage formed around the entire periphery of the image pickup apparatus into a plurality of passage areas by the opaque light passage area partition member. It is possible to perform multiple types of quality inspections for each passage area.

According to the invention of claim 4, for example, as in the passage area a6 of FIG. 5, a non-inspection region in which granules not subject to quality inspection can flow down a part of the passage areas among the plurality of passage areas. By doing so, it becomes possible to smoothly flow down the granules that are not subject to inspection.

According to the invention of claim 5, it is possible to make the separation distance between the image pickup apparatus and the tubular member in the passage different in a plurality of passage areas. That is, if it is necessary to inspect the granules one by one, the distance between the image pickup device and the tubular member in the passage is set to such that one granule can pass through, and the necessary inspection can be performed even if the granules overlap. If possible, the distance between the image pickup device and the tubular member in the passage can be increased. As a result, it is possible to suppress a decrease in the transfer efficiency (required flow rate) of the pipe.

According to the invention of claim 6, the tubular member and the image pickup apparatus are tilted and the granular material inspection device 1 itself is installed at an angle, and a non-inspection area in which the passing granular material is not inspected among a plurality of passing areas. Is placed on the upper side. This makes it possible to perform the inspection even when the flow rate of the granular material is small. On the other hand, when the flow rate is relatively high, the surplus of the granules that are not to be inspected can flow down through the non-inspection region on the upper side, so that the transfer efficiency of the granules can be improved. It will be possible.

According to the invention of claim 7, the tubular member is provided with a transmitted light source and / or a background light source capable of irradiating the granular material with transmitted light, so that the transmitted light from the granular material is photographed by an area camera. It is possible to inspect the quality of granules.

According to the invention of claim 8, the image pickup apparatus is provided with a reflective light source capable of irradiating the granular material with the reflected light, so that the reflected light from the granular material is photographed by an area camera and the quality inspection of the granular material is performed. It becomes possible.

According to the inventions of claims 9 and 10, by attaching the granular material inspection device to the pipe to which the brown rice or white rice is transferred, the protein mass, the water content, the whiteness of the brown rice or the white rice can be determined by the photographed image. It is possible to inspect the state of coloring and the state of white rice at the same time.

It is the schematic explaining the installation mode of the granular matter inspection apparatus of this invention. It is an external perspective view which shows one Embodiment of the granular matter inspection apparatus of this invention. It is sectional drawing in the vertical direction which shows one Embodiment of the granular matter inspection apparatus of this invention. It is sectional drawing in the vertical direction which shows one Embodiment of the granular matter inspection apparatus of this invention. It is a bird's-eye view in the AA cross section of FIG. It is a drawing which shows typically the image taken by the area camera, and shows the mode of taking a picture of the falling granular matter from (a) to (d). It is a figure explaining the photographing part of the granular matter shown in FIG.

The granular material inspection device of the present invention is an in-line type device connected to various devices such as a rice milling machine and a sorting machine and mounted on a pipe to which the granular material is transferred. The outline is illustrated. That is, the quality inspection of the granular material G flowing into these arbitrary various devices or the granular material G flowing out from the various devices is performed by the granular material inspection device 1 mounted on the pipe 2. As the granular material G to be inspected for quality, it is possible to inspect the quality of various granular material G in addition to grains such as rice.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the granular material inspection device 1, FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional perspective view of the granular material inspection device 1, and FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the granular material inspection device 1. The figures are shown respectively. As shown in the figure, the granular material inspection device 1 in the present embodiment is mainly composed of a tubular member 20 forming an outer shell and an imaging device 10 fixedly arranged at a central portion of the tubular member 20.

An area camera 110 and a lens 111 are provided inside the image pickup apparatus 10, and are surrounded by a non-transmissive tubular light-shielding member 112. The upper part of the tubular light-shielding member 112 is an annular mirror 113 which is annular and has a mirror surface on an outer surface inclined to the center of the annulus, and an upper part of opaque light connected to the upper part of the annular mirror 113. A tubular light-shielding member 114 is provided. Then, a mirror image of the granular material G reflected on the annular mirror 113 can be photographed. That is, as shown in the cross-sectional views of FIGS. 3 and 4, a mirror image of the granular material G passing through the photographing position (starting point position of the broken line arrow) is reflected on the annular mirror 113, and the reflected granular material G is reflected. The mirror image will be taken by the area camera 110 via the lens 111. In the present embodiment, the inclined mirror surface of the annular mirror 113 has a height of at least four divisions of the length of the falling granular material G in the longitudinal direction.

By providing the annular mirror 113 as described above, it is possible to manufacture the granular material inspection device 1 at a lower cost without the trouble of arranging a plurality of lenses. Further, as will be described later, when an attempt is made to acquire an RGB image and a NIR image at the same time by the area camera 110 using a fisheye lens or the like, the refractive index usually changes depending on the wavelength, so that the image data of the same portion of the granular material cannot be acquired. However, since the annular mirror 113 of the present invention utilizes reflection, it is not affected by the refractive index. Further, since the lens 111 is a lens, it is affected by the difference in the refractive index. Therefore, by using the lens 111 having less aberration from visible light to near-infrared light, it is possible to simultaneously acquire an RGB image and an NIR image of granular matter.

The area camera 110 in the present embodiment uses a CMOS image sensor equipped with a global shutter function, and the CMOS image sensor can simultaneously capture RGB images and NIR images. Further, for photographing in the near infrared region, it is possible to appropriately select and use a sensor capable of acquiring an NIR image in a wider wavelength region. According to the area camera 110 having such a function, it is possible to reliably capture the granular material G moving at high speed, and it is possible to perform various quality inspections by capturing the RGB image and the NIR image. Become.

FIG. 5 shows a bird's-eye view of the AA cross section of FIG. 4, but a passage through which the granular material G can pass between the image pickup device 10 and the tubular member 20 is shown around the image pickup device 10. 30 is formed, and the separation distance between the image pickup apparatus 10 and the tubular member 20 is such that one grain G can pass through. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, the area camera 110 can photograph all the granular objects G that have passed through the passage 30 and are reflected on the annular mirror 113.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, at least the tubular member 20 around the photographing position of the granular material G is made transparent or translucent, and the transmission light source 201 and the background light source 202 are provided at the positions. ing. Regarding the transmission light source 201, the transmission light source 201 is installed at two places above and below the shooting position (the starting point position of the broken line arrow in FIGS. 3 and 4) so that the surface of the granular material G is less likely to be shaded. I have to.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, the image pickup device 10 is configured such that at least the image pickup device 10 around the photographing position of the granular material G is transparent or translucent, and the reflection light source 101 is provided at the position. It is provided. In the present embodiment, the reflection light sources 101 are installed at two places above and below the photographing position (the starting point position of the broken line arrow in FIGS. 3 and 4) so that the surface of the granular material G is less likely to be shaded. .. The transmission light source 201, the background light source 202, and the reflection light source 101 include, for example, white LED elements, monochromatic LED elements (R, G, B, etc.), RGB LED elements, and near-infrared LED elements. Can be used according to.

As described above, in the granular material inspection device 1 of the present embodiment, a passage 30 through which the granular material G passes is formed between the image pickup device 10 and the tubular member 20, and the area camera 110 is used once. In the photographing, it is possible to simultaneously photograph a plurality of granular objects G passing through the entire circumference of the imaging device 10. Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, six passage area partitioning members 31 having a light-shielding property (impermeable light) and partitioning the entire periphery of the image pickup apparatus 10 for each area are provided and adjacent to each other. The passage 30, the transmission light source 201, the background light source 202, and the reflection light source 101 are also partitioned by the passage area partition member 31. Of course, when the same type of light source is used in the adjacent passing areas, it is possible to prevent each light source from being partitioned by the passing area partition member 31. The passage area partition member 31 also has a function of a stay that connects the tubular member 20 and the image pickup device 10 and fixes the image pickup device 10 inside the tubular member 20.

With such a configuration, as shown in FIG. 5, different measurement items are set for each of the passing areas a1 to a6 of the granular material G partitioned by the passing area partitioning member 31, and a plurality of types of quality inspections are simultaneously performed. It will be possible to carry out. For example, when the scraped rice discharged from the paddy-sliding device (not shown) is defined as the granular material G and passed through the granular material inspection device 1, the protein mass is in the passing area a1, the water content is in the passing area a2, and the passing area a3 is. It is possible to measure or determine the whiteness, the colored state in the passing area a4, and the shirata state in the passing area a5 from the captured image of the area camera 110, respectively.

The passage area a6 of the present embodiment is a non-inspection area, and is configured so that particles other than the granules G passing through the passage areas a1 to a5 to be inspected can pass through. As a result, the granular material G that is not subject to inspection can be smoothly flowed down, and it is possible to suppress a decrease in the transfer efficiency (required flow rate) originally required for the pipe 2.

Further, the transmission light source 201 and the reflection light source 101 arranged in the passing areas a1 to a6 have different wavelengths of the light source according to the measurement item, and further control the light emission / extinguishing including the background light source 202. As a result, not only the appearance quality but also a plurality of types of internal quality inspections can be performed. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, a light source is also provided in the passing area a6, which is a non-inspection area. However, if a problem occurs in the other passing areas a1 to a5, a spare light source is provided. It can function as an inspection area.

Subsequently, FIG. 6 shows a simulated photographed image in which a grain of sliding rice flowing down is photographed over time by the area camera 110. That is, the sliding rice reflected on the annular mirror 113 is sequentially photographed by the area camera 110 in the order of (a) → (b) → (c) → (d) during the flow. Therefore, in the captured images of the above (a) to (d), as shown in FIG. 7, the sliding rice is sequentially photographed from the tip of the sliding rice in the flow direction. In addition, in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, the photographed image obtained by dividing the slid-off rice into four is shown for easy understanding, but when actually discriminating the colored grains, the discriminating accuracy is required, so that the slid-off rice is slid off. The rice is divided into 20 to 30 pieces and photographed. However, since the water content, protein mass, etc. are inspected by the average value, it is possible to take a picture with a smaller number of divisions than the above-mentioned number of divisions.

The captured image data captured by the granular material inspection device 1 is sent to a built-in signal processing substrate (not shown), and after the above-mentioned inspection results of appearance quality and internal quality are calculated, the photographed image data is not shown by wire or wirelessly. It is transmitted to the monitoring control PC. It is also possible to share each of these quality data with the control unit of various devices such as rice mills via a network server, and by configuring in this way, various devices based on each quality data. Operation control becomes possible.

(Other embodiments)
Although one embodiment of the granular material inspection device of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above-described embodiment, and includes, for example, the following modifications.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, the entire periphery of the image pickup apparatus 10 is divided into six passing areas by the passing area partitioning member 31, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to such an embodiment, and any number can be used according to the quality inspection item. The passage area may be partitioned.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, both the tubular member 20 and the image pickup apparatus 10 have a concentric circular shape, but the shape is not necessarily limited to such a shape. ), The separation distance between the image pickup device 10 and the tubular member 20 in the passage 30 can be made larger than the separation distance in other passage areas. With this configuration, the effective cross-sectional area of the passage 30 in the non-inspection region (passage area a6) becomes large, so that the granular material G not to be inspected can flow down smoothly, which is inherently possible. It is possible to suppress a decrease in the transfer efficiency (required flow rate) required for the pipe 2.

Further, it is also possible to appropriately change the separation distance between the image pickup device 10 and the tubular member 20 in the passage 30 for each of the passing areas a1 to a6. For example, in order to inspect the state of shirata and coloring in the slid rice, it is necessary to inspect each grain, so that the distance between the image pickup device 10 and the tubular member 20 in the passage 30 is such that the slid rice does not overlap. On the other hand, the whiteness, the water content, and the protein mass do not affect the inspection result even if the sliding rice overlaps, so that the separation distance may be set so that a plurality of the sliding rice overlap. As a result, it is possible to suppress a decrease in the transfer efficiency (required flow rate) originally required for the pipe 2.

Further, in the annular mirror 113 in the above-described embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the mirror surface is a partial surface of a cone whose generatrix is a straight line, but the mirror surface is not necessarily limited to this. The shape may be such that the generatrix is curved.

In the present embodiment, the passage area partition member 31 has a function of a stay for fixing the image pickup apparatus 10 inside the tubular member 20, but it does not have to have such a function. For example, a stay different from the passage area partition member 31 may be provided, and the image pickup apparatus 10 may be fixed in the tubular member 20.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the granular material inspection device 1 is installed in the vertically arranged pipe 2, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to such a form, for example. Inspecting the granular material G by arranging a curved pipe joint in the middle of the pipe 2 arranged at an angle of 45 degrees and installing at least the granular material inspection device 1 vertically. It can be dropped in the device 1.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the granular material inspection device 1 is installed vertically, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to such a form, and for example, the connected pipe 2 It is also possible to install the granular material inspection device 1 by inclining it together with it. At that time, by setting the passing area on the upper side as the non-inspection area and arranging the passing area on the lower side where the inspection is performed, it is possible to perform the inspection even when the flow rate of the granular material G is small. On the other hand, when the flow rate is relatively large, the surplus portion of the granular material G, which is not to be inspected, can flow down through the non-inspection region on the upper side.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the area camera 110 is mounted in the image pickup apparatus 10 to capture RGB images and NIR images, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to such a camera, and an optical fiber or the like is used. It is also possible to use the line sensor of. Similarly, it is possible to take an NUV image (near-ultraviolet image) by changing the type of camera.

Although some embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the above-described embodiments of the present invention are for facilitating the understanding of the present invention and do not limit the present invention. The present invention can be modified and improved without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and the present invention includes equivalents thereof. Further, in the range where at least a part of the above-mentioned problems can be solved, or in the range where at least a part of the effect is exhibited, the scope of claims and the combination of each component described in the specification can be combined or omitted. ..

1 Granular matter inspection device 2 Piping 10 Imaging device 20 Tubular member 30 Passage 31 Passage area partition member 101 Reflective light source 110 Area camera 111 Lens 112 Cylindrical light-shielding member 113 Circular mirror 114 Upper tubular light-shielding member 201 Transmission light source 202 Background light source

Claims (10)

It is a granular material inspection device that is provided in the piping of the granular material to be transferred and can perform quality inspection of the granular material.
A tubular member forming an outer shell, capable of capturing the said granules the flowing down the passage and forming a passage of particulate matter between the inner peripheral surface of the fixedly arranged in the center of the tubular member tubular member With an imaging device,
The image pickup device
An image of an annular mirror formed in an annular shape and having a mirror surface on an outer surface inclined toward the center of the annulus and a mirror image of the granules arranged below the annular mirror and reflected in the annular mirror are photographed. With a possible camera,
The tubular member is formed to be transparent or translucent around the imaging position of the granular material, and a transmitted light source capable of irradiating the flowing particles with transmitted light is provided on the outer peripheral portion around the imaging position.
The imaging device is a granular material inspection device capable of simultaneously photographing a plurality of the granular materials flowing down the annular passage. The width of the annular passage formed between the inner peripheral surface of the tubular member and the imaging device is a width dimension that allows one grain to pass through.
The granular material inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the width of the mirror surface of the annular mirror has a width dimension such that a part of the granular material flowing down is reflected. The passage formed ambient of the imaging device is provided with a passage area partition member of opaque dividing the passageway a plurality of passage areas, it may be more than one type of inspection in each of the pass areas The granular material inspection apparatus according to claim 1 or 2. The granular material inspection apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a part of the passing areas out of the plurality of passing areas is a non-inspection area where particles not subject to the quality inspection can flow down. The granular material inspection apparatus according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the width dimension of the passage is different in the plurality of passage areas. The granular material inspection according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the tubular member and the imaging device are provided at an angle, and the non-inspection region is arranged on the upper side of the plurality of passage areas. apparatus. Said tubular member, a granular according to any of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that said granular material bar Kkugurando light source capable of irradiating the transmitted light to the granular object in the outer peripheral portion of the imaging position of the is provided Object inspection device. The granular material inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the imaging apparatus is provided with a reflective light source capable of irradiating the granular material with reflected light. When the granular material is brown rice, it is possible to simultaneously inspect the protein mass, water content, whiteness, coloring state, and silata state from the images of brown rice taken by the imaging device. The granular material inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8. When the granular material is white rice, it is possible to simultaneously inspect the protein mass, the water content, the whiteness, the coloring state, and the silata state by the photographed image of the white rice taken by the imaging device. The granular material inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

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