A presentation on design, construction and performance test of a color sorter.

1. Design, Construction and
Performance Test of a Color Sorter
Course No. ME 4000

2. Introduction
Color sorter separates items based on their colors & rejects
those whose colors do not fall within the acceptable range.
It uses mechanical or pneumatic ejection devices to divert the
rejected items.
They are used on the production lines in bulk food processing
and other industries.
Sorters can be mainly chute-type or belt-type.

3. Objectives
To study servo motors and Arduino board.
To study the working principle of color sensors.
To design the CAD model of the color sorter.
To construct the color sorter.
To test the performance of the color sorter.

4. Literature Review
World’s first color sorter machine –
Installed by – Satake
Installed in – 1932
Installed at – Michigan beans
Purpose – Commercial sorting

5. Description of the System

6. Main Components of the System
Arduino Uno
Color Sensor
Two Servo Motors
6V Rechargeable Battery
Breadboard

7. CAD Model

8. Circuit Diagram

9. Construction
 The whole system is constructed on a hardboard frame. The frame
consists of two bases.
 Each of top lid and second base has a hole in them so that chute can be
inserted through them. The third base contains another hole for
housing the sensor.
 The top servo motor is mounted on the second base and the rotary
platform is linked to the motor. The second base has also a cut to
facilitate the release of the object after sensing its color. A stationary
slider is added under second base.
 The bottom servo motor is attached to the main base of the whole
system.

10. Isometric View of the
Constructed Color Sorter

11. Performance Test
The performance of each component was first tested by
connecting them to a circuit individually. This ensures each
of them works fine.
All components are then connected to test the circuit of the
whole system. This done to check consistency of the system
and wrong connection.
Balls of red, green, blue color are fed into chute to test the
sorting capability of
the system.

12. Performance Test (Continued)

13. Result
The color sorter was able to distinguish among red, green, blue
colors successfully. Upon sensing the colors the bottom servo
motor rotates to the specific positions for each color as
programmed in the Arduino.

14. Recommendation
The system has no ejection device. So an ejection device can
be added to reject defected objects.
The whole system may be controlled by robotic arm and the
sensor. Such implementation will result more complex
construction and increased cost.

15. Thanks to All