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Sorting grains of rice at high speed
requires precision engineering and extreme reliability
Company
Sortex |
Industry
Machinery |
Location
U.K. |
Product Used
COSMOSDesignSTAR™ |
Type of Analysis
Deformation, Frequency |
More Details
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The sheer scale of production for
rice means that the color sorters must operate
extremely quickly - each chute can check 250,000
grains per second.
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The Challenge
Sortex has been designing and manufacturing
color sorting machinery from its headquarters in East London since
1947. Unlike its competitors, who tend to specialize in machines
for sorting particular types of produce, Sortex makes machines
that can sort everything from carrots to coffee beans, from pulses
to pistachios - including staple grains like rice.
One of the biggest threats to the
reliability of Sortex's machines is damage in transit. The nature
of the products being sorted is such that the machines tend to
be sent to far-flung regions, often in the developing world. Guaranteeing
reliable delivery is therefore extremely difficult: stories abound
of crates being hoisted onto the back of oxcarts. So one of the
key engineering requirements is for the sorting machines to be
able to withstand a treacherous and unpredictable journey after
they have touched down in their new home country. And it is here
that COSMOSDesignSTAR has a vital role to play.
The Solution
"Our machines only operate effectively if the optics are
precisely aligned," explains senior mechanical engineer Stewart
Mills. "So we need to be able to do what we can to ensure
the loading experienced during shipping does not result in permanent
deformation that will disrupt the optics."
Each machine contains ten six-foot
fluorescent tubes that are fixed in place during manufacture.
COSMOSDesignSTAR was used to confirm the deflection in the middle
of the long, thin lighting assemblies would not be enough to damage
or shatter the tubes, thus rendering the machines useless. Frequency
analysis was also used to check that the vibrators that agitate
the grain in the input hoppers would not result in harmonic oscillations
elsewhere.
Summary and Metrics:
- Removed at least one prototype from the design cycle
- Introduced new product to market faster
- Easy for non-analysts to learn and use on a regular basis
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"When
the machines are running at full speed, individual ejectors
can be firing 150 times a second. So we needed to come
up with something special in order to maximize the time
between services and minimize the downtime when components
do need adjusting or replacing."
Dr Sarah Bee, Engineering Product Manager
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