Automation of Weight-Based Sorting System Using Programmable Logic Controllers

Material sorting is an integral part of modern-day industries. In these industries, the production are made in batches ranging from several dozen to several thousand units, and thus, the raw material or any material used is also in abundance for example in case of coal industry, scrap industry, or in any industry that it's quantity based or weight based factor that effects the production can be implemented. Using manual labour for sorting of material is expensive, time consuming and inefficient. This problem can be solved by automating the material sorting. In this paper, we have discussed how we have developed a system that effectively sorts the material according to weight using PLC as the controller. Sensor that is used for implementing the idea is a load cell which was kept under the specially designed conveyor to measure the weight of the object and then that in turn gives the analogous signal which is amplified and given to the PLC unit which gives signals to the respective solenoid valve and conveyor for sorting process.