State of the art in sensor based sorting of waste

Common steps of waste treatment are comminution, sizing, sorting and conditioning, whereas sorting is the most important step. For a successful sorting process, every particle in the mass flow has to be considered. The sorting criteria are specific attributes like conductibility, susceptibility, density, size, shape, texture, color, mass or a combination of these. The functional principles of classical sorting machines are based on an interaction of a force field and specific attributes of the particles itself. There are sorting criteria, which do not interact with a force field. These are for example color, texture or shape. The only way to separate waste particles of this kind from a mass flow is hand picking or sensor based sorting.