Automated online measurement of limestone particle size distributions using 3D range data

Fully automated online measurement of the size distribution of limestone particles on conveyor belt is presented based on 3D range data collected every minute during 13 hours of production. The research establishes the necessary measurement technology to facilitate automatic control of rock crushing or particle agglomeration processes to improve both energy efficiency and product quality. 3D data from laser triangulation is used to provide high resolution data of the surface of the stream of rocks. The 3D data is unaffected by color variation in the material and is not susceptible to scale or perspective distortion common in 2D imaging. Techniques are presented covering; sizing of particles, determination of non-overlapped and overlapped particles, and mapping of sizing results to distributions comparable to sieving. Detailed variations in the product sieve-size are shown with an abrupt change when the size range of the limestone particles was changed.Validerad; 2011; 20101124 (mjt)Fragmentation Measurement of Bulk Material on Conveyor using 3D Visio