hai......
im trying to develop a project using arduino, for detecting plastic. in which i need to get output in computer if a particular thing is a plastic material. but for achieving this which sensor should i use.
Plz help, my all project is stuck because of this.
I am waiting for your reply.
Try infrared spectroscopy. The costs will probably be in the 100s or 1000s of dollars range.
thank you very much for replying.
infrared spectrometer really expensive. i will not be able to afford it.
is there any alternative ways???
You need to explain more about what the object(s) you need to detect apart from just being plastic.
Are the plastic items the same size/shape/colour or different.
What other material will be mixed in with the plastic you need to detect.
There is no single cheap sensor that would do this (apart from the human eye) but there may be processes you can perform to eliminate most other material types before trying to work out if it's plastic or not.
How would your theoretical plastic detector work with plastic with metallic ink printed on it? Or plastic with metal shielding sprayed onto the plastic?
I just remembered something from my plastic injection molding time. You can identify various plastics by heating or burning them and smelling the fumes given off. In your case, just heating a bit and using a sensor for any gas type would identify plastic.
Paul
i need to find a sensor that can detect plastic only and reject all other materials like wood, glass, paper, cans.
Might need a couple of sensors.
Does the material pass current? Or does impact a current flowing in a coil? (think metal detector) No, then it's likely not metallic.
Is the material soft? Can you press a hole in it? No, then it's likely not glass. Or ceramic.
Is the material really soft? Then it could be paper based. Or wood. Or cloth.
What's left? Could be plastic, or a hard wood, fiberglass.
What other tests can you think of?
Maybe narrow the hardness/softness down some - too soft, could also be a squishy bottle. Too hard could be a sturdy plastic bottle.
Does it pass light? Rules out wood, metal, could be a hard or soft plastic.
Put your thinking cap on, do some Imagineering.
There is no cheap solution to identify plastics in a mixed rubbish stream.
Rubbish recycling plants use various dry and wet physical methods to extract the metals, paper, grit and glass. The remaining fraction is assumed to be plastic.