The invention relates to a method of visualizing the planeness of a ring surface (16) of a container (14), the method consisting in: lighting the ring surface from above using a peripheral incident light beam having radial rays with specular reflection on the ring surface; and using an optical system (24, 124) to form a plane image of the ring surface on a sensor (18), with an optical geometrical transformation that converts a real height difference (dZ) into an image radial offset (dR) on the image, and the image radial offset (dR) corresponding to a unit real height difference (dZ) is greater than the image radial offset corresponding to a real radial offset of the same dimension.

The invention also provides a device and an installation implementing such a method.

Disclosed is a stone-block analysis device and method for the evaluation of stone blocks, in particular, concrete blocks to be arranged on a conveying device for conveying the stone blocks with a conveying surface for the stone blocks to be laid on, which extends into a longitudinal direction and into a transverse direction. The stone-block analysis device has at least one first scanner unit for scanning at least one physical characteristic of the stone blocks, an evaluation device for evaluating a signal output by the scanner unit, a control device, and a display device. The scanner unit is spaced away from the conveying surface in a vertical direction, perpendicular to the longitudinal direction and transverse direction. In addition to the first scanner unit, which is a point scanner, at least one second scanner unit is provided, which is a line scanner, wherein a height of at least one stone block can be detected by both scanner units.

An image processing apparatus, connected to an imaging part to capture an image of workpieces conveyed on a conveyer, includes an interface that receives a signal indicating a travel distance of the conveyer, an interface that communicates with a control device for controlling a moving machine disposed downstream of an imaging area of a imaging part, a positional information acquisition unit that processes the image captured by the imaging part and thereby acquiring positional information of a pre-registered workpiece in the image, a travel distance obtaining unit that obtains the travel distance of the conveyer synchronized with the control device, an initiating unit that initiates the capturing by the imaging part in response to an imaging command, and a transmission unit that transmits, to the control device, the positional information and the travel distance upon the capturing of the image used to acquire the positional information.

Apparatus for determining a property of products, in particular plant or animal products, the apparatus comprising: a conveyor configured for conveying products one-by-one along a transport path in a transport direction; a light source configured for illuminating a first illumination area of the transport path, wherein the first illumination area extends substantially across the transverse width of the transport path; and a sensor structure configured for receiving light from a sensing area of the transport path, wherein the sensing area extends substantially across the transverse width of the transport path, wherein the sensing area is adjacent to the first illumination area.

A method for sorting products and sorting apparatus with a flow of granular products moving in an inspection zone, in which a light beam is moved over the product flow to generate a reflected stream of light. At least one detector unit is provided to detect light reflected by the products to generate detection signals. This detector unit cooperates with a control unit to sort the products by these detection signals. The detector unit contains at least two sensors that are provided one after the other in the reflected stream of light so that a sensor is placed upstream of a downstream sensor. Each sensor detects a different part of the reflected stream of light.

A process for detecting oil or lubricant contamination in a manufactured product, the process comprising adding a fluorescent taggant to oils or lubricants contained in processing machinery for said product, conveying said product past an infrared detection apparatus, irradiating said product with infrared radiation from said detection apparatus as it passes the detection apparatus, and detecting infrared radiation emitted from said irradiated product.

Disclosed is a method analysing plastic preforms, wherein plastic preforms are transported along a predetermined transport path by a transport device and an infrared absorption coefficient is determined in at least one region of the plastic preform, wherein, in order to determine the infrared absorption coefficient of the plastic preform, infrared radiation is applied to the plastic preform by a first radiation device and radiation passing through the plastic preform is received by at least one receiving device and an infrared absorption behaviour of the plastic preform is determined from this received radiation, wherein the radiation device acts upon the plastic preforms with infrared radiation in a predetermined wavelength range and an evaluation device evaluates the radiation as a function of its wavelength in a wavelength range from 1500 nm to 2000 nm.

An identification apparatus includes a plurality of irradiation units disposed at different positions in a conveyance width direction to irradiate a specimen with a converging ray in different irradiation conditions, the specimen being conveyed in a predetermined conveyance direction by a conveyance unit, a plurality of light-capturing units configured to capture scattered light from the specimen, each of the plurality of light-capturing units corresponding to a different one of the plurality of irradiation units, an acquisition unit configured to acquire identification information for identifying a property of the specimen, based on the light captured by the light-capturing units; and a placement unit configured to place the specimen on a position corresponding to any one of the plurality of irradiation units in accordance with a characteristic value of the specimen at an upstream side of the plurality of irradiation units in the conveyance direction.

The present invention relates to a method of identifying and/or distinguishing materials by means of luminescence, wherein at least one luminescent substance is incorporated into the material and/or applied onto the material and the luminescence behaviour of the substance is analysed after excitation by means of radiation, and the use thereof for identifying and/or sorting and/or recycling and/or authenticating and/or performing a quality check and/or formulation check on materials.

A high-speed method and system for inspecting a stream of parts using at least one transparent traveling carrier of a conveyor subsystem are provided. The subsystem has a forward reach and a return reach. The method includes controllably receiving a stream of parts in rapid succession on the at least one traveling carrier and utilizing the subsystem to transfer the stream of parts in rapid succession to a part inspection station. The bottom surface of each part is illuminated through its traveling carrier with radiant energy when the part is located at the inspection station to generate reflected radiation signals which travel through its traveling carrier. A bottom image of each illuminated bottom surface is formed from the reflected radiation signals at an imaging location between the forward and return reaches at the inspection station. The bottom images are detected at the imaging location.