食品異物検査におけるレーザー応用技術

摘要

Conducting inspections for foreign materials is very important in a number of industries to maintain production safety. Non-contact inspection techniques are particularly desirable in food industries, and therefore a variety of systems have been developed and deployed in international food industry. Here, one of the chief hazards comes from metals and stones, which are detected mainly with electromagnetic induction or pattern recognition using X-ray transparent images. Color sensing systems are also used in a wide variety of industries. We have been developing a detection system for tiny materials in dry food using lasers. Lasers can be focused with high intensity on small regions. We have applied this system to detecting tiny stems, often included in imported raisins.