A process for detecting oil or lubricant contamination in the production of an article by adding a Stokes-shifting taggant to an oil or lubricant of a machine utilized to produce the article or a component thereof, irradiating the articles produced with a first wavelength of radiation, and monitoring the articles for emission of radiation at a second wavelength. The taggant can be in the form of a composition containing a Stokes-shifting taggant, which absorbs radiation at a first wavelength and emits radiation at a second wavelength, different from said first wavelength, dissolved or dispersed in an oil or lubricant.

A method and system for sorting workpieces, such as chicken nuggets. The sorting system includes a conveyor system that advances in a forward direction and one or more blow off bars positioned over the conveyor system. The blow off bars extend along the forward advancing direction. The blow off bars include one or more valved nozzles connected to a pressurized source of a fluid, and the nozzles are positioned to discharge the fluid across the conveyor system.

Various examples of a system for peanut sorting and grading are disclosed herein. The system for grading peanut maturity, can include: a sample feeder configured to supply individual peanuts to an imaging area; a sorting board comprising a plurality of chutes and a plurality of gates, each chute of the plurality of chutes designated for a grade of peanut; and program instructions to obtain the digital image of the individual peanut; determine the grade of the individual peanut; and sort the individual peanut based on the grade of the individual peanut. A method for grading peanut maturity, can include feeding an individual peanut to an imaging area; obtaining a digital image of the individual peanut; determining a grade of the individual peanut based on an average color; and sorting the individual peanut in a chute of a sorting board based on the grade of the individual peanut.

Grain sorting process and apparatus (1) includes a grain infeed chute (2) for delivery of bulk cereal grain into the apparatus (1) past an in-line measurement station (3) which analyses selected parameters of grain delivered through the infeed chute (2). The grain infeed chute (2) discharges onto a horizontal grain sorting conveyor (4) which discharges the grain into storage silos (5, 6) in response to one or more measured parameters of the grain determined at the measurement station (3). The measurement station (3) has a sensor unit (7) which includes a near-infrared light source for emitting light onto grain delivered through the grain infeed chute (2) or through the grain sorting conveyor (4). The light is reflected from the grain and reflected light is detected by the sensor (7) to provide a spectrum of the grain. A spectrometer (8) connected to the sensor unit (7) converts the spectrum into one or more corresponding preselected grain parameter values. The grain parameter values generated by the spectrometer (8) are delivered to a controller (9). The controller (9) then controls operation of the sorting conveyor (4) in response to the measured grain parameter values to deliver the cereal grain into a storage silo (5, 6) having a grain parameter corresponding to the measured grain parameter.

A weighing system is mounted on a support, and the support is configured to support the weighing system. The weighing system includes a feeding mechanism, a conveying and transferring mechanism, pushing rods, a pushing mechanism, resetting mechanisms, a weighing mechanism, and a linkage follower mechanism. The feeding mechanism is arranged at a top portion of the support. The conveying and transferring mechanism is arranged below the feeding mechanism. The conveying and transferring mechanism includes a transferring wheel, a plurality of first channels, a plurality of sliding blocks, a plurality of first grooves and a guide base. The pushing mechanism is arranged on one side of the transferring wheel. The resetting mechanisms are configured to push the sliding blocks connected with the pushing rods to slide along the first channel towards an initial direction, and the weighing mechanism is arranged below the transferring wheel.

A system for processing meat pieces includes a radiation inspection apparatus configured to receive a primary stream of meat pieces conveyed by a conveyor and to detect trim products containing undesired objects; a reject device; a control unit configured to operate the reject device using the detected undesired objects as an operation parameter such that the meat pieces containing the undesired objects are separated from the primary stream of trim products; an object remover configured to remove the undesired objects from the meat pieces separated from the primary stream of trim products; and a recirculation apparatus configured to receive the meat pieces after undergoing the object remover and recirculate it as a secondary stream into the radiation inspection apparatus. The secondary stream is separated from the primary stream, and the radiation inspection is configured to detect whether any remaining undesired objects are in the secondary stream.

A sorting device for sorting agricultural products coming from a bulk flow and a corresponding method are described. A sorting device includes an image acquisition unit; an image processing unit configured to identify and analyze each product in the bulk flow; a decision unit configured to determine the products to be separated; a separation unit arranged to separate at least some of the products coming from the bulk flow; and a unit for conveying the agricultural products in the form of bulk flow. The sorting device may further include means for turning over the agricultural products on themselves, mounted in the conveying unit facing the image acquisition unit, and configured to allow an exposure to the image acquisition unit, of the different parts of the conveyed agricultural products.

Devices, systems and methods for sorting and labeling food products are provided. Respective spectra of food products for a plurality of segments of a line are received at a controller from at least one line-scan dispersive spectrometer configured to acquire respective spectra of the food products for the plurality of segments of the line. The controller applies one or more machine learning algorithms to the respective spectra to classify the plurality of segments according to at least one of one or more food parameters. The controller controls one or more of a sorting device and a labeling device according to classifying the plurality of segments to cause the food products to be one or more of sorted and labeled according to the at least one of the one or more food parameters.

A tofu production system includes: a production device configured to continuously produce tofu; a conveyance device configured to arrange the tofu produced by the production device according to a predetermined rule corresponding to the tofu and convey the tofu; a tofu inspection device configured to inspect the tofu on the conveyance device; and a sorting and removing device configured to sort or remove a defective product in the tofu being conveyed by the conveyance device based on an inspection result of the tofu inspection device.

A sorting system (10, 20) for sorting sorting objects (1), including a sensor unit (2) which is adapted to detect a property, in particular a size, shape, weight, color and/or material, of a sorting object (1), and a valve arrangement (3) which is adapted to blow on the sorting object (1) in order to convey the sorting object (1) to one of a plurality of possible sorting destinations (4), wherein the sorting system (10, 20) is adapted to selectively set, according to the detected property, a blowing strength (8) to a first blowing strength (8A) greater than zero or to a second blowing strength greater than zero, the second blowing strength being different from the first blowing strength (8B), and to blow the sorting object using the valve arrangement with the set blowing strength to cause the sorting object to be conveyed to the sorting destination.