Technical Field The present subject matter relates to article carriers for use in grading and sorting apparatus for use in grading or sorting fruit, vegetables or other articles.

Background Processing lines for articles such as fruit often require different articles to be separated. This is an important commercial function, which may be used for example, to distinguish fruit destined for export and fruit destined for the local market. Manual grading of articles is costly, slow and prone to inaccuracies. Thus, automated methods and apparatus for grading articles have been developed. Known sorters can grade and sort produce by weight, colour, blemish, dimensions, shape, density, internal quality etc.

Article carriers are used to transport articles such as fruit through various stages for grading purposes, and to eject fruit at a required location dependent on the result of the grading process. The use of one or more video cameras is one known method of automatically sensing characteristics of articles. The article carriers typically include an endless circuit of cups on a conveyor chain with the cup situated to unload fruit at one of a plurality of stations. Each cup is usually arrange to carry a single article in order to enable sensing of the individual articles. In order to deliver a single article to each cup or carrier partition, a singulation process is required which receives randomly located articles across a relatively large area, and effectively funnels these into a single line of articles. A tapering chute and/or v-belt may be used for this function.

Throughout this specification, any reference to items of prior art is in no way to be deemed as an admission that such prior art constitutes part of the common general knowledge. Summary

It is an object of the present subject matter to provide an improved article carrier apparatus, or at least to provide the public with a useful alternative. In one aspect there is provided an apparatus having a first carrier for carrying articles, a second carrier having a plurality of partitions and arranged to receive the articles into respective partitions, and a sensor arranged to determine a size parameter of the articles. The first carrier is operated at a speed dependent on the determined size parameters.

By controlling the speed of the first carrier dependent on the size of the articles, the capacity of the apparatus can be increased as a higher percentage of the partitions contain an article and there is less spillage of articles. In an embodiment carrying cherries, the first carrier speed is increased when a larger cherry size is determined, and the speed is reduced when a smaller cherry size is determined.

In an embodiment the speed of the first carrier is dependent on a ratio of a size parameter of the partitions of the second carrier and the determined size parameter of the article. The second carrier is typically operated at a predetermined speed, although variable and controlled speeds are also contemplated.

In an embodiment the first carrier may comprise a singulation belt, such as a V-belt for example. The partitions of the second carrier may be adapted to carry a single article, and the sensor may be located about the second carrier downstream of a location at which the second carrier receives the article. The second carrier may comprise a conveyor having controllably rotatable rollers arranged to form the partitions between respective pairs of rollers.

In an embodiment the apparatus is adapted to carry fruit or vegetables, such as cherries for example.

In an embodiment the sensor may be arranged to determine additional characteristics of the articles, and be further arranged to sort the articles based on their additional characteristics. In an embodiment the apparatus may further comprise a third carrier intermediate between the first and second carriers and operated at a speed higher than the first carrier.

In another aspect there is provided an apparatus having a first carrier for carrying articles, a second carrier having a plurality of partitions and arranged to receive said articles into respective partitions, a third carrier intermediate between the first second carriers and operated at speed higher than the first carrier.

In an embodiment the third carrier is operated at a slower or equal speed compared with the speed of the second carrier.

The speed of the first carrier may be substantially constant or may be controlled dependent on a determined size parameter of the articles. By running the third or intermediate carrier at a speed faster than the first carrier but less than or equal to the second carrier, the carrier speed difference when transferred articles onto the second belt is reduce. This in turn reduces the incidence of kick-back which can result in spillage of articles which reduces the capacity or efficiency of the apparatus.

The invention may also be said broadly to consist in the parts, elements and features referred to or integrated in the specification of the application, individually or collectively, in any or all combinations of two or more of said parts, elements or features, and where specific integers are mentioned herein which have known equivalents in the art to which the invention relates, such known equivalents are deemed to be incorporated herein as if individually set forth.

Further aspects of the invention, which should be considered in all its novel aspects, will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading of the following description which provides at least one example of a practical application of the invention.

Brief description of the drawings

Embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, by way of example only and without intending to be limiting, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view and schematic of an apparatus for carrying articles according to a first embodiment;

Figure 2 shows a side view of the apparatus of Figure ; Figure 3 is a side view and schematic of an apparatus for carrying articles according to a second embodiment;

Figure 4 is a plan view of an apparatus for carrying articles having a plurality of lanes;

Detailed Description

An apparatus for carrying articles according to an embodiment is shown in plan view in Figure 1. The apparatus 100 comprises a first carrier 105 for carrying articles such as cherries, and a second carrier 115 having a plurality of partitions 125 such as cups. The second carrier is arranged to receive the articles into respective partitions so that typically a single article will be carried within each partition 125. The first carrier 105 may be part of a singulation process and in this embodiment has a v-belt arrangement comprising two belts arranged longitudinally parallel to each other but at a cross-sectional angle in order that the articles are carried in a single row or line. The second carrier in this embodiment comprises a number of cups, each of which receives a single article from the first carrier. The second carrier may conveniently be that described in PCT patent publication number WO04067417. Whilst specific first and second carrier arrangements have been described, alternative arrangements may equally be used, for example the second carrier having an endless belt with transverse ribs to form the partitions in between. Similarly the first carrier may comprise a flat belt having longitudinal guides to maintain a single row of articles.

The apparatus 100 also comprises a sensor 150 arranged to determine a size parameter of the articles. The size parameter may simple be a transverse, longitudinal, or height length measurement of each or a number of the articles passing by the sensor 150. Advantageously, the sensor 150 is that used for determining sorting characteristics and is located about the second carrier downstream of a location at which the second carrier receives the articles. A commercially available sensor is the InVision series of camera based sorting products available from Compac Sorting Equipment Limited of 1 Spring Road, Onehunga, Auckland, New

Zealand. However alternative sensor arrangements may be used, for example including a size sensor located about the first carrier.

The first carrier 105 comprises a motor 110 for driving the carrier in the direction indicated by arrow A. Similarly, the second carrier 1 5 comprises a motor 120 for driving the carrier in the direction indicated by arrow B. Thus articles on the first carrier 105 are delivered individually to the partitions 125 of the second carrier 115. These articles are carried downstream by the second carrier to the sensor 150 which determines a size parameter of the article, and may determine additional characteristics which allow the apparatus to sort the articles based on these additional characteristics and/or the determined size parameters. The articles may then be delivered to different processes, sorting belts, flumes and the like in order to group the articles according to the determined characteristics and/or size parameters.

The apparatus 100 also comprises a controller 160 which receives the determined size parameters of the articles, and controls the motor 110 of the first carrier to operate at a speed dependent on the determined size parameters of the articles. Thus the first carrier may speed up or slow down depending on the determined size parameters of the articles passing though the sensor 150. Typically the second carrier will be operated at a predetermined speed, and the speed of the first carrier 105 is controlled to be dependent on a ratio of a size parameter of the partitions of the second carrier, and the determined size parameters of the articles. By adjusting the speed of the first carrier relative to the second carrier, the cup fill or capacity of the second carrier can be optimised. In particular this load belt speed control can increase the number of partitions containing a single article, whilst also reducing the number of partitions containing two articles, or reducing the number of articles spilled off the second carrier.

Referring also to Figure 2, where a side view of the apparatus of Figure 1 is shown carrying cherries. As discussed above, the first carrier 105 is a singulation belt typically comprising two parallel belts arranged in a v-cross section such that the cherries are delivered to the second carrier 15 in a single line and one at a time. Typically the singulation process and belt is such that the cherries or other articles abut each other in the single line to form a substantially continuous row of cherries without spaces or gaps in between. As the first carrier 105 proceeds in direction A, a cherry 265 is delivered to a partition 225 of the second carrier 115. The speed of the first carrier 105 and the speed of the second carrier 1 15 are arranged such that a single cherry 265 is delivered from the first carrier 105 to each partition 225 of the second carrier 115. Occasionally there will be gaps in the line of cherries delivered by the first carrier 105, and so some partitions 225 of the second carrier 115 may be empty. However as described below, the speed of the first carrier 105 is controlled in order to minimise these occurrences and thus increase the throughput of the apparatus on average. Occasionally two cherries may be delivered from the first carrier 105 to a single partition 225 of the second carrier 115 either resulting in inaccurate sorting of the cherries or wastage and/further processing both of which may result throughput and efficiency of the apparatus. However, speed control of the first carrier 105 can also be employed to reduce the occurrence of multiple articles delivered into a single partition 225 and thereby increase throughput and efficiency of the apparatus. The cherries, other fruit or vegetables, delivered to the second carrier 115 are then carried downstream to the sensor 150 which typically incorporates a camera 225 to measure various characteristics of each cherry. These characteristic may include colour, blemishes, and size parameters. These size parameters may then be used to control the speed of the first carrier 105. Typically the speed of the second carrier 115 is held constant in order to operate with downstream systems such as the sensor 150 and downstream delivery to different sorting channels. However in alternative embodiments, a variable speed second carrier may be employed in which the relative speed between the first and second carriers is adjusted in order to achieve the benefits of the descried embodiments.

The partition size 235 of the second carrier to typically fixed, for example 38 mm which together with a constant speed of, for example 1m per second, requires a fixed delivery rate of cherries from the first carrier 105 to ensure full capacity of the second carrier 115. However the size of the cherries varies, typically between 22-36mm. Therefore in order to ensure maximum capacity of the second carrier 1 5, the delivery rate of cherries by the first carrier 105 must be adjusted depending on the size of the cherries. Typically, cherry size varies in batches as the cherries from a single tree are delivered in one batch for example. Two batches of cherries are shown at 270 and 280, having respective sizes 275 and 285. If the first batch 270 of cherries has a size parameter 275 of 25mm, then the speed of the load belt 105 should be:

25mm x 1 m per second = 0.658m per second

38mm

Thus the speed of the first carrier is dependent on a ratio of size parameter 235 of the partitions of the second carrier and the size parameters 275 of the articles, in this case cherries. When a new batch 280 of cherries having a different size parameter 285 arrives on the first carrier, the speed of the first carrier will require adjustment in order to deliver cherries to the second carrier at the required rate for full capacity. If the new batch of cherries has a size parameter of 36mm, then the speed of the first carrier needs to be adjusted as follows: 36mm x 1m per second = 0.947m per second

38mm

Thus the speed of the first carrier 105 needs to be increased when carrying batches of larger cherries 280, compared with batches of smaller cherries 270.

Conveniently the sorting sensor 150 is employed to determine the size parameter 275 or 285 of the different batches 270 and 280 of cherries, this information being fed back to the controller 160 which in turn adjusts the speed of the first carrier motor 110 as indicated above. As the cherries are typically delivered in batches, the short delay between a new batch appearing on the first carrier 105 to be delivered to the second carrier 115, and the first cherries of this batch being carried to the sensor 150 does not significantly affect the overall operation of the apparatus in this transition phase. However the overall efficiency and throughput of the apparatus is significantly improved.

Whilst the embodiment has been described with respect to specific arrangements and example features, alternative arrangements and features could also be used. For example a size parameter of the articles could be determined at a sensor other than the sorting sensor 150, for example a camera located about the first carrier 105. As noted above, the first and second carriers may have varying constructions, for example a second carrier may comprise a flat belt with transverse ribs forming partitions, cups, arrangements of controllably rotatable rollers or any other suitable arrangement as would be apparent to the skilled person. Similarly the first carrier may comprise a flat belt with stationary side guides or other singulation arrangements as would be apparent to the skilled person. Further, whilst in this embodiment, the speed of the second carrier 115 is maintained constant, in alternative arrangements the speed of the second carrier may be varied requiring slightly more complicated control of the first carrier speed in order to maintain the ratio of a size parameter of the partitions of the second carrier to the determined size parameters of the articles. Referring now to Figure 4, an apparatus 400 comprising a plurality of parallel lanes for processing cherries is shown. The apparatus 400 comprises a number of the apparatus described with respect to Figures 1 and 2. These are arranged into lanes 402A-N each comprising a first carrier 405A-N and a second carrier 415A-N. Additionally each lane comprises a singulation chute 407A-N which together with the first carriers funnel the received cherries into single lines. The cherries are provided on a delivery belt or chute 403 and are separated into the individual lanes 402A-N as shown. Each lane comprises one or more sensors 450 which may determine various parameters or characteristics of the cherries or other articles. A determined size parameter is used to control the respective speeds of the first carriers 405A-N.

The determined characteristics are used to sort the cherries downstream of the sensor 450 into a number or sorting channels 490X, Y, Z. As indicated, a cherry having a particular characteristic such as a certain size range or colour, may be delivered into a first sorting channel 490X by movement of the second carrier partition carrying this, or some suitable mechanism for pushing the cherry from the second carrier into the sorting channel. Other sorting channels 490Y and 490Z may be used to collect cherries having different size ranges or colours, or different levels of blemishes for example. Any suitable sorting channel 490 may be employed, for example a water flume or delivery belt. By employing the variable speed control of the first carrier 405A-N, the efficiency and throughput of the apparatus 400 is improved.

An apparatus for carrying articles according to another embodiment is shown in Figure 3. The apparatus 300 is similar to that of Figures 1 and 2 in having a first carrier 305 and a second carrier 315. The first carrier 305 may be a singulation belt, for example a v cross-section belt arrangement as previously described. The second carrier may be any of the previously described arrangements, in which individually delivered articles such as cherries are carried to a sensor 350 for determining sorting characteristics or parameters as previously described. Determined size parameters of the articles may also be fed back to a suitable controller 360 which may be used to vary the speed of the first carrier 305 as described above. However in an alternative arrangement, the speed of the first and second carriers 305 and 315 may be controlled differently to that described with respect to the first embodiment, including a constant speed for both.

The apparatus 300 additionally comprises a third carrier 340 intermediate between the first and second carriers as shown. Cherries or other articles are carried by the first carrier 305 in the direction indicated by X, and are delivered onto the third or intermediate carrier 340 which carries them in direction Y. The articles are then delivered by the intermediate carrier 340 to the second carrier 315, and are carried in direction Z to the sensor 350 and sorting channels beyond. The third or intermediate carrier 340 is operated at a speed higher than the first carrier in order to separate the articles received from the first carrier before delivering the separated articles to the second carrier 315. The use of the intermediate belt 340 also reduces the incidence of kickback when cherries are landing in the partitions of the second carrier.

Kickback is sometimes caused by carrier speed change, in particular the articles landing onto a faster belt than the belt they were delivered from. This may cause them to roll, slide, or bounce out of the partition thereby reducing throughput of the apparatus. By introducing a faster intermediate belt or carrier 340, the cherries are then transferred onto the second carrier 315 with a smaller speed difference between the carriers which reduces the incidence of kickback. In other words, the speed difference between the third and second carriers is less than the speed difference between the first and second carriers. In addition, the intermediate belt 340 also tends to separate the cherries delivered from the first belt 305 which is running slower. This separation can be advantageous by reducing bunching and entanglement of stalks which in turn reduces the incidence of two cherries being introduced into the same partition of the second carrier.

In an illustrative arrangement the second carrier 315 may be operated at 1 ms ^" the first carrier 305 at 0.8ms ^"1 and the third carrier of 1.25ms ^"1 . However the third or intermediate carrier may run at any speed above the speed of the first carrier and less than or equal to the speed of the second carrier.

The variable speed control of the first carrier described in the first embodiment may also be employed in this embodiment. Similarly the present embodiment 300 may be employed in the larger parallel apparatus of Figure 4 in which each lane has the three carriers 305, 315, 340 for carrying and sorting the articles. Various other alternative arrangements will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art.