Sweeping it over the carpet

Describes the Ecovision parts orientation system where parts are conveyed on a vibratory carpet of polypropylene fibres embedded in a polyurethane bases. The fibres are inclined from the vertical which determines the direction the component’s travel and by arranging the carpet in particular patterns components can be made to move in any desired direction. The current version of Ecovision has a CCD sensor: parts travel between the CCD camera and a narrow parallel light source and the system detects for each pixel whether it is “black” or “whiter”. Concludes by looking at some of the many application Ecovision is employed for such as the sorting of small springs and the handling of E‐cores.