International Paper Company

Jody MacDonald

Kapil Mohan Singh

William R Shields

James F Suska

A system for determining characteristics of objects in wood pulp includes a pulp sampling and dilution system for diluting and dispersing samples of pulp, and an imaging/analysis system for capturing images of pulp objects, including fibers, and analyzing the captured images. Samples of pulp are provided to a dispersion tank where pulp is dispersed within a liquid to form a wood pulp slurry having a consistency in the range of from about 0.01 to about 0.001 percent. The dispersed pulp is conducted to a transparent flow cell for imaging and analysis of pulp objects. Light radiating from a light source is reflected off surfaces of objects within the dispersed pulp, producing scattered light. One or more cameras capture scattered light from objects as the objects pass through a camera's field of view. The output of the cameras are digitized and filtered to eliminate motion blur, and the filtered visual image displayed on a monitor. Each pixel of the image is compared to a graylevel threshold, and pixels meeting the graylevel threshold are converted to objects. Object pixels are averaged and compared to a critical mean graylevel threshold. If the average does not meet the critical mean, the object is eliminated from further analysis. Objects meeting the critical mean are analyzed using various size and shape filters to determine properties of the objects. The measured object properties are then displayed on the computer monitor with operator selectable parameters as well as stored in archival files and spreadsheet files, and periodically reviewed by machine operators to enable proper adjustment of process variables.

Growing community of inventors

Dryden, ME, United States of America

Jody MacDonald