Barco CottonSorter User manual

CottonSorter
Detection and removal of contaminants in raw cotton
Barco is proud to introduce the Cotton Sorter, a real time system for the detection and re-
moval of contaminants from raw cotton in the blow line. All unwanted material that differs
from the cotton throughput is detected by ultra-fast CCD cameras and removed by means
of high speed air guns.
It is very easy to install the Cotton Sorter in an existing opening line. The system is installed
in the pipeline that transports the cotton tufts from the bale opener. The cotton ow through
the machine is straight. No need to add fan capacity to elevate the cotton and drop it through
the inspection zone.
The Cotton Sorter provides the means to safeguard a high and consistent quality level, re-
gardless of operator practices. The early removal of contaminants results in an improved and
consistent quality level, less customer complaints and a higher efciency on OE machines
and winders due to a lower number of foreign ber cuts by the yarn clearers.

Working principle
In the Cotton Sorter, the material passes through
a transparent tunnel. In the inspection zone, the
cotton is diffusely illuminated.
The individual tufts are observed by means of four
ultra-fast high resolution CCD line scan cameras.
Simultaneous image acquisition from both sides
enhances the detection capability.
Image processing includes correction for non-uni-
form lighting, contrast enhancement and feature
extraction. Defects that are of a different color than
the raw cotton and are of a certain size, are detected
in the cotton ow.
In order to allow exact timing between contami-
nant detection and activation of the downstream
ejection mechanism, the speed of the cotton
ow is continuously measured. After the cor-
responding delay, the appropriate high speed air
guns are activated downstream.
Specifications
Enclosure:
sealed for dust protection temperature controlle
touch screen operator’s panel
Camera:
CCD line scan - 2592 pixels - 1450 lines per second
- 8 bit or 256 color levels - 4 cameras per sorter
Illumination:
high frequency light tube - 16 light tubes per
sorter
Ejection:
20 air guns, 90 psi or 6 bar, 5 mu ltered dry air
Power:
3x400 V (50/60 Hz), 2 kW power consumption
Weight:
1400 kg or 3960 lbs
Capacity:
1200 kg/hour. Dual Feed Sorter
2x500 kg/hour is also available.

The Cotton Sorter comes with a touch screen based
operator’s console, allowing comfortable and easy
machine set-up, operation and follow up.
Contaminants to be ejected are described as a devia-
tion in color and size. The contaminant size is dened
as a combination of contaminant width (number
of pixels) and contaminant length (number of scan
lines). Tolerances in color are dened by means of
threshold levels (limits). Setting a low level results
in objects with a color value below this limit being
identied as a contaminant.
The result of the scanning by the cameras is shown
on the “camera display menu”. On the horizontal
X-axis, the number of camera pixels is indicated
whereas the Y-axis displays the color level. A value
of zero corresponds with black, whereas 255 means
white. It is obvious that the ow of normal cotton is
recognized as close to the white level.
Benefits
- Upgrade possibilities for low quality cotton
bales
- Evaluation of cotton suppliers
- Less customer complaints
- Independent of operator’s goodwill
- Higher efciency on OE machines and winders
because of a lower number of foreign ber cuts
by the yarn clearers
- Low cost of installation due to exible system
set-up
- Low energy consumption
- No moving parts resulting in mini-mized main-
tenance
- Easy calibration, once a week (10 seconds with
stopped cotton ow)
Operator interface

www.barco.com
BarcoVision
Th. Sevenslaan 106
B-8500 Kortrijk
BELGIUM
Tel (intl) 32 56 26 26 11
Fax (intl) 32 56 26 26 90
e-mail: [e-mail]
BARCO SEDO GmbH
Neuwies 1
D-35794 Mengerskirchen
GERMANY
Tel (intl) 49 64 76310
Fax (intl) 49 64 763131
BARCO - Loepfe s.r.l.
Via El Alamein, 11/C
I - 22100 Como
ITALY
Tel (intl) 39 031 331231
Fax (intl) 39 031 3312322
BarcoVision LTD
Philips Road
Whitebirk Industrial Estate
Blackburn, Lancashire BB1 5SN UK
Tel (intl) 44 1254 66 22 44
Fax (intl) 44 1254 58 25 95
BarcoVision LLC
4420 Taggart Creek Road
Suite 101
Charlotte, NC 28208
USA
Tel (intl) 1 704 392 93 71
Fax (intl) 1 704 399 55 88
In opening lines - CottonSorter
The Cotton Sorter RX-CS is a real time system for detection and removal of
contaminants in raw cotton. All unwanted material that differs from the cotton
throughput will be detected by ultra-fast CCD cameras and removed by a special
pneumatic ejection unit.
on draw frames - SliverWatch
This detection system is installed in the creel of draw frames handling the rst step
drawing. The purpose is to stop the draw frame if a contaminated sliver is detected,
so that the operator can eliminate the contamination. This avoids that second step
drawing and spinning spreads the contamination over many meters of yarn.
on Open-End spinning frames - ABS
The ABS detector is installed on the yarn withdrawal tube in the spin box. ABS can
be installed on O.E. machines regardless the presence of whatever type of yarn
clearer. With ABS the detector simply comes as an add-on, replacing the original
yarn withdrawal tube with an “intelligent” one. This way, the original investment
in yarn clearing is safeguarded.
on winders - YarnMaster
The YarnMaster 900 eliminates yarn defects as well as foreign bers and reports
the events on-line according to international standards, being : thick and thin
places, IPI values, splices, yarn count deviations, imperfections, foreign bers.
on Open-End spinning frames - Polypropylene
The Polypropylene detector is added to the BarcoProle® detector in such a way
that the yarn barely touches the PP sensing head. The sensing head detects colored,
white and colorless Polypropylene contamination in the yarn.
Integration in the BARCO SpinMaster system
All Barco and Loepfe detector systems and sensors can be integrated in Barco’s SpinMaster plant wide monitoring system.
With SpinMaster, the whole production process can be monitored starting from opening lines to draw frames, yers, ring frames,
OE machines, winders and twisters. The SpinMaster system also allows the connection of production machines equipped with other
(non-Barco) yarn quality detection or clearer systems.
A total solution to fight contamination in spinning mills
15/01/2005