This disclosure relates to a moisture measurement system, and more particularly to an online material moisture measurement system and its method.
For materials such as cereals, feeds, or other industrial substances, etc, a very important procedure is required to measure the moisture content of these materials during harvest or manufacture. Accurate moisture content measurement data may be used as a reference for subsequent drying, storage, or manufacturing operations. As to cereals, the average moisture content is approximately 25% at harvest, and the moisture content may increase to a percentage up to 35% in rainy seasons. If the moisture content is not measured accurately when the cereals are purchased, the fairness of trade or the follow-up operations will be affected significantly.
Present online material moisture content measurement methods may be divided into capacitive, infrared, or microwave methods. With reference to
Regardless of which online measurement method is used, a stable online transportation method is required, so that the material to be measured M can be situated at a stable flowing state in a unit time to reduce the measuring error and improve the accuracy and stability of the measurement.
In view of the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art, the discloser of this disclosure based on years of experience to conduct extensive research and experiment, and finally provided a feasible solution to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art.
Therefore, it is a primary objective of this disclosure to provide an online material moisture measurement system and its method, so that the material to be measured can be situated in a stable status in a unit time to improve the accuracy of the measurement.
To achieve the aforementioned and other objectives, this disclosure provides an online material moisture measurement system comprising a fixed conveyor unit, a sensor and a constant-volume material guiding device. The fixed conveyor unit has a conveying side provided for passing a material. The sensor is installed onto the conveying side of the fixed conveyor unit. The constant-volume material guiding device is installed adjacent to the sensor, and a flow channel is formed between the constant-volume material guiding device and the fixed conveyor unit. The flow channel has a material inlet and a material outlet, wherein when the material enters into the material inlet and passes through the material outlet, the material has a volume greater than a lower limit and moves and passes through the sensor steadily.
The constant-volume material guiding device of this disclosure can stabilize the online conveying process to improve the measurement precision of the sensor. In different embodiments, the constant-volume material guiding device may have a cross-section in the shape of an inclined plate, a raft plate, an upright plate or a plate in any other appropriate shape, so that the cross-sectional area of the material outlet is smaller than the cross-sectional area of the material inlet, or the width of the material inlet is greater than the width of the material outlet. When the sensor measures a material passing through the flow channel, the material at the material outlet can be situated at a steady flow state with a reduced flow rate and stacking effect.
To achieve the aforementioned and other objectives, this disclosure further provides an online material moisture measurement system comprising a fixed conveyor unit and a constant volume sensing device. The fixed conveyor unit has a conveying side provided for passing a material. The constant volume sensing device is installed onto an inner side of the conveying side and the constant volume sensing device includes a material guiding unit and a sensor built in the material guiding unit. The constant volume sensing device is installed in a flow channel for passing the material. An oblique angle is included between the material guiding unit and the fixed conveyor unit, and when the sensor measures the material passing through the oblique angle, the material has a volume greater than a lower limit and passes through the sensor steadily.
The major difference between this embodiment and the previous embodiment of this disclosure resides on that the sensor and the constant-volume material guiding device are integrated as a whole, and the constant volume sensing device is installed onto an inner side of the conveying side to simplify the installation procedure and reduce time. The oblique angle between the material guiding unit and the conveying side provides a stable flow effect by reducing the flow rate and stacking.
To achieve the aforementioned and other objectives, this disclosure provides an online material moisture measurement method comprising the steps of: providing a conveying side for passing a material; measuring the moisture content of the material by a sensor; and providing a constant-volume material guiding measure, so that the material has a volume per unit time greater than a lower limit and moves and passes through the sensor steadily.
The technical contents of this disclosure will become apparent with the detailed description of preferred embodiments accompanied with the illustration of related drawings as follows. It is intended that the embodiments and figures disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative rather than restrictive.
With reference to
The fixed conveyor unit 1 has a conveying side provided for passing the material A. The sensor 2 is installed onto an outer side of the conveying side 11 of the fixed conveyor unit 1. In the first preferred embodiment as shown in
The constant-volume material guiding device 3 is installed adjacent to the sensor 2, and a flow channel 31 is formed between the constant-volume material guiding device 3 and the fixed conveyor unit 1. The flow channel 31 has a material inlet 32 and a material outlet 33, wherein when the material A enters into the material inlet 32 and passes through the material outlet 33, the material A has a volume greater than a lower limit and moves and passes through the sensor 2 steadily.
The constant-volume material guiding device 3 as shown in
In the experiment readings as shown in
In the second embodiment as shown in
In the third embodiment as shown in
The sensor 2 as shown in
With reference to
When the sensor 2 measures the material A passing through the oblique angle θ, the material A has a volume greater than a lower limit and passes through the sensor 2 steadily. In short, the main difference between the fourth embodiment and each of the aforementioned embodiments resides on that the sensor 2 is integrated with the constant-volume material guiding device 3, and the constant volume sensing device 4 is installed onto an inner side of the conveying side 11. The remaining structure and experimental measurement results are substantially the same as the aforementioned embodiments and thus will not be repeated.
With reference to
(a) Provide a material passing through a conveying side.
(b) Measure the moisture content of the material by a sensor.
(c) Provide a constant-volume material guiding measure, so that the material passing through in a unit time has a volume greater than a lower limit and moves and passes through the sensor steadily. It is noteworthy that the lower limit varies due to the specification and the sensing technology of the sensor, wherein the material passing through in a unit time has a lower limit of 1 cm3.
In the Step (a), the online material moisture measurement method is applied in the fixed conveyor unit such as a cylindrical groove, a connecting pipe, a conveyor belt or a grooved tube.
In the (Step b), the sensor is installed onto an outer side of the conveying side in a non-contact manner. In a different method, the sensor may be installed onto an inner side of the conveying side, as needed.
In the (Step c), the constant-volume material guiding measure comprises a constant-volume material guiding device installed with a spacing with respect to the conveying side for guiding the material, or a material guiding unit built in the sensor and disposed on an inner side of the conveying side and having an oblique angle included therein, so that the material can pass through the oblique angle steadily. In the measuring method with the design of separating the constant-volume material guiding device from the sensor, an is formed between the constant-volume material guiding device and the conveying side, and the flow channel has a material inlet and a material outlet, so that the material at the material outlet is in a steady flow state with a reduced flow rate and stacking effect. Therefore, when the sensor detects the water content of the material, an accurate measurement result of the material passing through the sensor in a unit time can be obtained.
While this disclosure has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this disclosure set forth in the claims.