CONVEYOR SYSTEM

Abstract

A conveyor system for use with a scanning apparatus for the scanning of contained materials such as liquids and the like, especially within containers such as bottles, is described, comprising a transverse conveyor having a conveyor surface; a plurality of container support modules each adapted to seat on the conveyor surface; wherein each container support module comprises a lower surface that sits upon the conveyor surface of the conveyor and upper part in which a container-receiving recessed portion is defined. A method of conveying bottles using such a system is also described.

Claims

1. A conveyor system for use with a scanning apparatus for the scanning of contained materials within containers, comprising: a transverse conveyor having a conveyor surface; a plurality of container support modules each adapted to seat on the conveyor surface; wherein each container support module comprises a lower surface that sits upon the conveyor surface of the conveyor and upper part in which a container-receiving recessed portion is defined.

2. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 1 wherein at least the portion of the support module comprising the recess in the upper surface is resiliently deformable.

3. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the recess in the upper surface is configured in use to be resiliently deformable as a bottle is placed therein, into a deformed configuration where the bottle is held stably and rigidly container in a fixed position and orientation.

4. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the support module comprises a gas-filled envelope so configured as to define a container receiving recessed portion.

5. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 4 wherein the support module comprises a gas-filled envelope comprising at least one closed cellular volume defined by a gas-impermeable web material inflated to a desired extent with a gas.

6. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 5 wherein the support module comprises a gas-filled envelope comprising a plurality of separately closed cellular volumes.

7. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 5 wherein the web material comprises a flexible thin film material.

8. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 5 wherein the web material comprises a polymer sheet.

9. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 8 wherein the web material comprises a thermoplastics sheet.

10. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 8 wherein the sheet is thermally bonded to form a cushion and/or cellular cushion structure.

11. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 4 wherein the gas-filled envelope comprises a gas-impermeable web having a lower surface that sits upon the conveyor surface of the conveyor so as to present an upper part in which a container receiving recessed portion is defined.

12. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the support module is configured to define a recessed portion which tends to orient a container received thereon in a single preferred direction.

13. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the support module is a gas-filled envelope comprising a plurality of separately closed cellular volumes in a cellular arrangement which is symmetrical about and thereby tends to orientate a received container along such a preferred single direction.

14. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 13 wherein the gas-filled envelope comprises a plurality of separately closed cellular volumes in a cellular arrangement comprising at least one cell each side of a mid-line.

15. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 14 wherein the cellular structure comprises one or more pairs of similar cells, with a cell of each such similar pair positioned either side of a mid-line.

16. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 1 further comprising means to locate a support module in at least one of a fixed position and an orientation relative to the conveyor surface.

17. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 16 comprising locator structures to locate a support module in a desired fixed position and/or orientation relative to the conveyor surface during use.

18. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 1 wherein a plurality of support modules are fixed to the conveyor surface of the transverse conveyor.

19. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 18 wherein a plurality of support modules are distributed across the conveyor surface in one or more rows arranged in a translation direction.

20. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 19 comprising a plurality of rows, wherein the modules in any given row are longitudinally offset in a translation direction relative to other modules in any further rows, so that bottles pass successively but separately through the scanning zone.

21. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the transverse conveyor is an endless belt conveyor.

22. A conveyor system in accordance with claim 1 comprising a plurality of support modules including at least one of plural alternative sizes and structures.

23. A scanning system comprising a conveyor system in accordance with claim 1 additionally provided with an object scanner.

24. A scanning system in accordance with claim 23 wherein the object scanner is a radiological scanner.

25. A scanning system in accordance with claim 24 wherein the radiological scanner comprises a radiation source and a radiation detector system spaced therefrom to define a scanning zone therebetween, the conveyor system being positioned to convey objects to and through the scanning zone.

26. A scanning system in accordance with claim 25 wherein the detector system is disposed to collect radiation after transmission through an object in the scanning zone.

27. A scanning system in accordance with claim 25 wherein the detector system is adapted to resolve radiation incident upon it spectroscopically into a plurality of energy bands.

28. A scanning system in accordance with claim 27 wherein the detector system is adapted to resolve radiation incident upon the detector spectroscopically into at least three energy bands.

29. A scanning system in accordance with claim 25 wherein the radiation source is adapted to generate a two dimensional beam through an object as it passes through the scanner.

30. A scanning system in accordance with claim 29 wherein the detector system is arranged and configured to receive incident radiation from such a two dimensional beam after transmission through the object and is preferably a linear array detector or a series of such linear array detectors.

31. A scanning system in accordance with claim 25 wherein the detector system is adapted to generate a transverse slice dataset from radiation transmitted as a transverse slice through an object as it passes through the scanner and includes transverse slice dataset generation module for this purpose.

32. A scanning system in accordance with claim 25 wherein the source radiation is high energy electromagnetic radiation comprising at least one of x-rays gamma rays, and subatomic particle radiation.

33. A scanning system in accordance with claim 25 wherein the detector system is adapted to detect incident radiation in spectroscopically resolved manner in plural separate energy bands in the sense that it is adapted to differentiate incident radiation simultaneously into plural separate energy bands across a spectrum of the source.

34. A scanning system in accordance claim 25 wherein the detector system comprises a material adapted to exhibit a spectroscopically variable response across at least a substantial part of the intended radiation spectrum in use.

35. A scanning system in accordance with claim 34 wherein the detector system comprises a material adapted to exhibit inherently as a direct material property a direct variable photoelectric response to different parts of the radiation spectrum in use.

36. A scanning system in accordance with claim 35 wherein the detector material is selected from cadmium telluride, cadmium zinc telluride (CZT), cadmium manganese telluride (CMT), and alloys thereof.

37. An apparatus in accordance with claim 36 wherein the detector material, save for incidental impurities, consists essentially of crystalline Cd1(a+b)MnaZnbTe where a+b<1 and a and/or b may be zero.

38. A method of conveying contained materials in containers through a scanner comprising the steps of: providing a transverse conveyor having a conveyor surface; providing a plurality of container support modules each adapted to seat on the conveyor surface, wherein each container support module comprises a lower surface that sits upon the conveyor surface of the conveyor and upper part in which a container-receiving recessed portion is defined; disposing at least one container support module on the conveyor surface; placing at least one container on a container support module; translating the transverse conveyor to cause the at least one container and container support module to move to and through a scanner.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein the container support module comprises a gas-filled envelope so configured as to define the container-receiving recessed portion.

40. The method of claim 38 wherein the step of causing the at least one container and container support module to move to and through a scanner comprises specifically: providing a radiation source and a radiation detector system spaced therefrom to define a scanning zone therebetween; translating the transverse conveyor to cause the at least one container and container support module to move through the scanning zone; collecting radiation incident at the detector after interaction with and for example transmission through the at least one container in the scanning zone.

41. The method of claim 40 comprising the further step of deriving information indicative of the material composition of the contents of the at least one container from the collected radiation incident at the detector after interaction with and for example transmission through the at least one container in the scanning zone.

42. The method of claim 41 comprising the further step of the step of resolving the radiation incident at the detector spectroscopically into a plurality of energy bands and preferably at least three energy bands spaced across a spectrum of the source radiation and using the spectroscopically resolved radiation to derive information indicative of the material composition of the contents of the at least one container.

Description

[0093] The invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3 of the accompanying drawings in which:

[0094] FIG. 1 is an illustration of a single bottle in position on a support module embodying the principles of the invention;

[0095] FIG. 2 is an illustration of a conveyor system comprising plural such support modules, shown in plan view in use in conjunction with a radiation source and detector;

[0096] FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration in cross-section through the scanning zone to show the option of using multiple sizes of support module.

[0097] FIG. 1 shows a view from above of a simple cellular cushion comprising an embodiment of modular support structure in accordance with the principles of the invention. The cellular cushion 1 comprises a single cell either side of a mid-line (cells 1a, 1b) which defines a bottle alignment direction D parallel to an elongate axis of the cellular cushion 1. The cellular cushion is effectively mirror symmetrical about this axis.

[0098] The cellular cushion 1 is made from a thin plastics film partly inflated with air or other light gas. This provides a low cost disposable support system which can hold a bottle 3 suitably in position aligned with its long direction in the direction D, and retain it stably in use on a conveyor belt. The support only consists of thin light materials that do not significantly modify the intensity or the spectrum of a polychromatic x-ray beam with may be used to irradiate a bottle carried upon it.

[0099] This is importance potentially significant advantage in the intended principal application of the invention where the modification to such a transmitted x-ray spectrum by attenuation through bottle and contents is used as the basis for materials identification. Using such a support means that the interpretation of the material contents of a scanned bottle is not affected by the supporting structure.

[0100] A support structure with a very low x-ray attenuation provides for more widespread applicability for a range of applications, in particular for example where it is desirable to scan a range of containers with a range of potential responses, and the complication of removing attenuation attributable to the container makes the data harder to interpret.

[0101] A support structure based on the cellular cushion principle, rather than the more rigidly structured and defined container-receiving recessed portion that might be provided for example in a support structure fabricated from a foam or light polymeric material, is also more flexible in its ability to receive and to stably support a range of differently-sized and -shaped containers. Again therefore it provides for more widespread applicability where it is desirable to scan a range of containers.

[0102] The example support structure of the embodiment based on the cellular cushion principle is therefore optimized for universal application, for example in security applications where a range of shapes, sizes, contents etc need to be tested. However, in many scenarios, particularly where only a few shapes, sizes, contents etc are to be tested, for example for quality control or testing of known objects, other support solutions may be just as applicable, and the cellular cushion embodiment will be understood to be an example only.

[0103] The supporting structure is compliant with use in a belt fed scanner system as illustrated in FIG. 2. Multiple such supporting structures in place on a conveyor belt 5 are illustrated from above.

[0104] Multiple cellular cushions 1, supporting multiple bottles 3, are provided arrayed on an upper surface 5 of a conveyor belt which transports the supported bottles in a belt direction B. The cellular cushions allow for the orientation of the bottle, which it is usually desirable to align to the direction of belt travel, to be simply achieved by an operator. In the illustrated embodiment, the direction of travel of the belt B is the same as the orientation direction of the bottle D.

[0105] The conveyor belt 5 moves the bottle and support arrangements in a traversing direction B towards and through a scanner. The scanner in the embodiment is one that utilises scan beams that are orthogonal, nominally recording x-ray projection data of slices through the target medium and at a number of x-ray energies, facilitated by energy selective detection technology.

[0106] The slice is conveniently a one or two dimensional transmission radiograph. The collected data may be numerically analysed. For example the scanner is adapted to use transmission intensity data to generate a one- or two-dimensional image of an object in an x, y plane generally perpendicular to an incident radiation transmission path and/or to process such transmission intensity data from a slice of an object in an x, y plane for example to obtain information about the material composition of container and/or contents.

[0107] The scanner provides a scanning zone defined by a polychromatic x-ray source 7 and a multispectral x-ray detector 9. Such a source and detector arrangement is used to obtain spectroscopically resolved attenuation information, resolved across at least two and preferably at least three energy bands of the polychromatic x-ray source as the polychromatic x-ray beam traverses bottle and contents, and this attenuation information may then be used as the basis for materials analysis/identification, for example by numerical processing embodying the principles of International Patent Publication No. WO2009/024818.

[0108] In the illustrated example, it can be seen that the cellular support structure is incorporated in a fixed pattern onto a belt of a scanner system, so that the bottles lie in three rows in a staggered array so that they can be closely successively but separately scanned as the belt moves in the direction B. This allows high throughput rates while avoiding the problem which might arise in the event of the simultaneous scanning of multiple bottles, and the difficulty in deciphering information from such multiple bottle scans, as the traversal by the x-ray beam of single bottle slices can be separately identified.

[0109] In the illustrated embodiment, the multiple cellular cushions 1 are fixed on the surface of the scanner, to ensure consistent orientation of the bottles in a direction D parallel to a belt direction B, but arrangements in which the cushions are detachable or otherwise aligned could be envisaged. The lower surface may be provided with a high friction material for example. Bottle orientation may thus be aligned to the direction of translation allowing for the possibility for the lateral position of the bottle being in a stable and known position.

[0110] Optionally, and not shown in the example, the upper part of the film may be modified to provide a collar portion adapted in use to encircle the neck of a bottle to retain the bottle more stably and rigidly in a fixed position and orientation.

[0111] The thin film membrane of the support cushion may be labelled, for example using suitable print technology, with identifying, calibration and positional markers as required.

[0112] FIG. 3 is a representation in schematic cross-section through the scanning zone defined between a source 7 and detector 9, and illustrates the option to provide plural differently sized supports (11, 12, 13) for differently sized/shaped bottles (14, 15, 16) and/or to retain bottles in different positions in the scanning zone.

[0113] Thus, the system provides a versatile solution that has a minimal effect on the attenuation of the x-ray beam, allowing insertion of multiple bottle shapes and sizes, supporting bottles of a regular shape reliably, stably and consistently, and affording the opportunity for the operator to position the bottle as required and provide effective scanning.