Sensorgestützte Sortierung 2010

AuszugPreface Single grain separation by means of externally identifiable properties which can be determined with suitable detectors is defined as Sensor based Sorting. This technology revolutionised the design of dry working processes in the field of waste treatment as well as in mineral processing methods. In principle most of modern sensor based sorting machines consist of a conveyance system for dissemination and singling of the feed material, a sensor system for the recognition of specific material properties, a software controlled electronic device for the interpretation of data received from the sensor system and a pneumatically working discharge device for the separation of positively detected components. Today newly developed machines often are equipped with a combination of different sensors in order to recognise multiple material properties in a single step whereas the sensor data are evaluated in real-time by a computer system. As a consequence, these machines guarantee a better separation efficiency in comparison with single sensor devices especially for sorting of complexly composed material mixtures with a high variety of qualitative characteristics. A special advantage of modern machines is their learning aptitude which is based on software-controlled data processing. This feature allows an increased adaptability especially with regard to changes of the process flow sheet, the input material composition or altered product qualities of the recovered materials. Finally, in order to achieve effective separation results with sensor based sorters it is of major importance to condition the feed material on sorters before entering the detection zone. This mainly concerns the singling of the different components in the feed material. Thus, single particles should not touch or overlap each other in order to achieve a mono-layer. The most common method to reach this goal is to employ a cascade of different belt conveyors and/or inclined sliding chutes with increasing transport velocities. The application of sensor-based sorters in mineral as well as in recycling processing exhibits great advantages as new separating criteria are made accessible. In addition, the continuing development of new sensor systems keeps opening up innovative fields of operation. Remarkable progress concerning novel sensors and sensor combinations has been achieved in the past years. This is the reason to conduct the fourth conference “Sensor Based Sorting 2010” which again aims to support the exchange of experiences between operators, machine suppliers and researchers.