Machine Vision for Bloom Cropping Inspection

The bloom cropping process needs precision to ensure that impurities are discarded and not too much good material is wasted. Using a JLI system can greatly improve this operation and produce a record of crops with time and date. Substantial savings can be achieved.

The Bloom Cropping Inspection System covers the area at the shear and measures the distance from the shear to the end of the material. The system recognizes pointed ends or fishtails, and has several algorithms to recognize the extreme point of fishtails or eliminate git ends.

The red hot bloom is transported to the shear, and the nose is positioned to allow sufficient material to be taken off. As the bloom enters the field of view, the end is identified and a vertical line at the nose of the bloom is displayed on the operator's monitor.

The vision system receives bloom length information and the percentage to be cropped at the nose and at the tail. System software will analyze the end shape and identify fishtail or the git end. To aid the operator an aim line is displayed to make it easy to position the bloom.

A special display meter shows the position error with a ten times magnification. When the operator activates the cropper, actual discarded lengths are recorded. The operation is repeated for the tail end.