Sorting of Objects Based on Colour, Weight and Type on A Conveyor Line Using PLC

Abstract

Sorting of products in an industry is a tedious industrial process, which is generally carried out manually. Continuous manual sorting creates quality consistency issues. Segregation based on different characteristics like weight, colour, type require different equipment for weighing and then separating. We have proposed an efficient method which uses load cell, inductive sensor and TCS 230 colour sensor for identifying and segregating on the basis of weight, colour and type (metal or non-metal) of object and Siemens 300 Series PLC to control the overall process of sorting two types of objects. The system rejects and discards objects that are not of required characteristics by pushing them out of conveyor line using a flipper mechanism. A circular container, having three partitions is used to collect objects of three different colours. Two conveyor belts were used, each controlled by separate DC motors. The first belt is for placing the product to be analyzed by the load cell and inductive sensor, which also contains a colour sensor at the end for one type of segregated object and the second belt also has a colour sensor for the components separated by the load cell and inductive sensor.