Method and apparatus for sorting materials according to relative composition

• US 20070030953A1
• Filed: 08/03/2006
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Spectramet, LLC
• Original Assignee: Spectramet, LLC
• Inventors: Spencer, David, Roos, Charles, Sommer, Edward, Conley, R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,564,943 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 378/53
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 2501/0009 Sorting of fasteners, e.g. screws, nuts, bolts
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 2501/0036 Sorting out metallic particles
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 2501/0054 Sorting of waste or refuse
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 5/3416 according to radiation transmissivity, e.g. for light, x-rays, particle radiation detecting hidden objects G01V
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 5/3422 using video scanning devices, e.g. TV-cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 5/368 actuated independently
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2223/64 multiple-sample chamber, multiplicity of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2223/643 object on conveyor
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 23/06 and measuring the absorption
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 23/087 using polyenergetic X-rays
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 23/12 the material being a flowing fluid or a flowing granular solid

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a metal sorting device including an X-ray tube, a dual energy detector array, a microprocessor, and an air ejector array. The device senses the presence of samples in the x-ray sensing region and initiates identifying and sorting the samples. After identifying and classifying the category of a sample, at a specific time, the device activates an array of air ejectors located at specific positions in order to place the sample in the proper collection bin.

Claims

1. A sorting device to distinguish materials of differing relative average atomic numbers, comprising:

an X-ray tube;

a multi-energy detector having a photon counting rate of up to 500 million counts per second, positioned to receive x-rays from the X-ray tube;

a microprocessor operationally connected to the multi-energy detector;

an ejector controller operationally connected to the microprocessor; and

at least one ejector attached to the ejector controller.

2. The device of claim 1, further comprising a conveyor belt disposed between the X-ray tube and the multi-energy detector.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the ejector is an array of at least two ejectors.

4. The device of claim 1, further comprising at least one collection bin.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the multi-energy detector is a multi-energy cadmium zinc telluride pixel detection system.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein the multi-energy detector is a multi-energy detector array for detecting more than two energy levels simultaneously, wherein the energy levels range from about 1 KeV to about 160 KeV.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the multi-energy detector array further comprises dual energy x-ray detectors and a data acquisition system.

8. The device of claim 6, further comprising a serial controller attached to the microprocessor and attached to the multi-energy detector array.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the microprocessor performs an identification algorithm.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the multi-energy detector is removed from the primary path of x-ray transmission.