Sensor-based sorting systems

In order to produce high-quality secondary raw materials from heterogeneous waste, it is necessary to process it as efficiently as possible. Sorting is one of the essential basic operations here. Sensor-based sorting systems now enable fully automatic and efficient sorting of a wide variety of material flows. The functional principle is based on the contactless detection of specific material properties (e.g. colour, density), which are reduced to a sorting decision by means of integrated evaluation software. This decision is forwarded within milliseconds to the discharge unit, where the corresponding objects can be separated from the material flow, for example by compressed air or by means of a robot gripper arm. By combining several sensors and integrating artificial intelligence, it is also possible to "learn" increasingly complex sorting tasks.