I have installed a Bale counter onto a conveyor belt.

It counts bales passing through a pair of IR Beams.

The bales are not uniform in size.

The count is recorded in a GSM Commander and then is sent via SMS every hour the number of bales passed the sensor.

I am experiencing a few challenges.

IF two bales are right next to each other the counter counts it as one bale, Often the internal packaging gets caught in the guide and it flaps in front of the IR Beam giving false counts.

I was wondering if there is anything more accurate that can be used in place of the IRB's

Many thanks

 

Particle counters have been standard clinical laboratory fare for more than half a century. The two problems you mention are not unique to bales. Laser scattering can give an estimate of size to address some of those problems, but I assume that is not applicable to your situation.

Perhaps your beam-break detector can incorporate a timer so that if the off-time exceeds a limit, then it counts as two. As for the false counts, the converse of that would be that the off-time must meet a certain minimum or not be counted. In either case, you will get only an approximate, but the correction might be close enough.

Just curious, are these square bales or round bales? Where I live, most of the farms have converted to round bales for feed. I have only seen square bales for straw.

John

 

They are bales of Tobacco, in the past they were pretty perfect squares but now they come in all shapes and sizes