An Image Analysis System for Selective Recovery of Non-ferrous Metal

To increase the recycling rate for non-ferrous metal, a high speed sorting line with a high throughput rate of up to 1ton per hour was built. The system comprises an Image Analysis System to detect shredder particles and calculate their position on the belt as well as several 2D and 3D shape features. ElectroMagnetic Tensor Spectroscopy (EMTS) or Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) characterize each particle based on its metal components. Tests were conducted under hard conditions in an industrial environment. For a full covered 400mm x 100mm belt area the Image Analysis System needs less than 24.5ms at a feature calculation accuracy up to 95%. The developed system can easily be adapted to other scenarios.