Good afternoon,
I need an aid to a project , need sensors that detect wood, glass, paper or aluminum. I've never seen anything like that, but I wonder if there are any or someone knows something .
Can be Infrared sensor or camera or the like.
Thank you for your help.
Anderson
There are no sensors like you describe, however conductivity sensors can discriminate metals from nonconductive objects.
Even a human would have trouble if the object was painted or laminated.
Since paper is really wood made flat, that might be more difficult, but x-ray may be able to help with the rest.
Paul
Search BBC archives for Tomorrows' World. There was an episode in the mid-late 1980's showing a conveyor belt sorting those materials at speed. I think something like it got implemented at scale in Cardiff Bay on a former British Steel site, so try finding a contact detail for them. It is the process defining what types of sortable materials are allowed in your recycling bin.
Rather than detect ferrous metal, an electromagnet picked them off the line. Rather than detect non-ferrous metals, an ac induction coil did something to flip those off to the non-ferrous bin. Next one wants to chomp the rubbish in a crusher and tip the lot into moving water. Bits which float tend to be polyethylene and other low density thermoplastics. Bits which sink and do not combust in the glass remelt furnace tend to be glass. Bits which slop about in the water tend to be paper or can be ground to make paper.
Nothing here described finds wood too well. At home I further categorise woods as "untreated timber; Ash ok for the garden", "poison treated wood such as old fence panels; landfill. Ash not good for the garden", "poison mdf and chipboard; landfill. Ash not good for the garden". Can you have a think about sorting the wood ? If it is damp then it won't burn too well in the glass furnace and anyway it floats. So better not to put wood in the recycle bin ?
If you make a camera based rig to further sort one of the partially sorted streams, you might want to look at raspberry pi.
Anderson1981:
Good afternoon,
I need an aid to a project , need sensors that detect wood, glass, paper or aluminum. I've never seen anything like that, but I wonder if there are any or someone knows something .
Can be Infrared sensor or camera or the like.
Thank you for your help.Anderson
Just weigh them to detect a difference?
If you want to Identify which substance, you are going to have to decide what makes each one different. Then find a sensor that can measure this difference.
Color might work;
If paper is white, glass is transparent, wood is brown?
You have to decide what to measure, then find the sensor whose domain encompasses that difference.
Chuck.
What kind of materials are you working with? Random garbage, or known items of known size and color?
There is no sensor that can sort through all of that.
It would have to be done in stages. Buoyancy sorting, magnetic sorting, color sorting, hardness sorting, this is not an Arduino project.