Sorting shrimps in the fish industry

Earlier, shrimps used to be manually sorted using an adjustable sorting machine. However, this process wasn’t much reliable and quick. Modern sensor technology improved the operations of these machines significantly. In these improved machines, the shrimps are passed by a conveyor belt into a container that shakes the shrimps through two rolls. The size of shrimps depend on the separation of the rolls.

Inductive Sensors of the series LVP by Bestech Australia are used in this machine for measuring the roll gap. Instead of an aluminium housing and a plug connector, these sensors come with a stainless steel housing and a cable output which is very suitable for use in the food industry due to their capability to withstand the aggressive cleaning agents used in the foodstuffs industry.

A previously manually adjustable sorting machine for shrimps has been retrofitted with a displacement sensor. In this way the process reliability of the machine was able to be increased significantly. In the machine shrimps are passed by a conveyor belt into a container. The container shakes the shrimps through two rolls. The separation of the rolls determines the size of the shrimps falling through.

The adjustment of the rolls is measured by an inductive displacement sensor of the series LVP. The output is provided by a digital display which indicates the roll gap in mm.

The roll separation is approx. 20 mm initially and enlarges to 40 mm, i.e. the sorting is carried out from small through to large.

Measurement objective:
Simple control of the roll gap using the displacement sensor and connected display (in mm).A special version of the Series LVP is used with a stainless steel housing and cable output instead of the aluminum housing and the plug connector. This special design can also withstand the aggressive cleaning agents used in the foodstuffs industry.

Sensor selection:
Stainless steel housing suitable for the foodstuffs industry
Resists aggressive cleaning agents
High level of protection