Inventors:
Richard P. Bell - Cincinnati OH
Karl F. Rill - Cincinnati OH
John C. Butler - Centerville OH
Assignee:
Richard Equipment Company, Inc. - Cincinnati OH
International Classification:
B07C 5342
Abstract:
An automatic optoelectronic inspection device is located at a position downstream from a cigarette making machine and upstream from cigarette packaging machinery, and cigarettes are conveyed in groups to the inspection device where each group is inspected. The inspection device includes a plurality of photodetectors arranged so that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the position of a photodetector and the position occupied by each cigarette in a normally formed group. Each photodetector includes a light-emitting source for illuminating the end portion of a cigarette and a photoelectric transducer for sensing light reflected from the end portion of a cigarette in registration with the photodetector. The power to the light-emitting sources is controlled in such a way that the intensity of the light emanating from each light-emitting source is modulated at a high frequency. The signal produced by each photoelectric transducer is AC-coupled to circuitry for comparing each photoelectric transducer signal with a preset threshold signal, thereby substantially eliminating the effects of varying ambient light on the accuracy with which missing and improperly filled cigarettes are detected.