THERMAL IMAGING REFUSE SEPARATOR

A garbage separation apparatus utilizes a vibrating conveyor to form a thin layer of individual items in a stream of municipal waste. The individual items of municipal waste are then transferred to conveyor belts in spaced apart relation. The conveyor belt passes the items of municipal waste under an array of infrared lamps. Immediately after being illuminated by the infrared lamps, the items of municipal waste are imaged by an infrared video system. The infrared video camera produces a video image wherein specific colors refer to a specific range of temperatures. The output of this video camera is processed to separate mono-temperature images which are processed so as to drive the actuation of individual vacuum grippers out of an array of vacuum grippers placed over the conveyor belt transporting the items of municipal waste. The actuation commands derive from a particular thermal-image depicting a particular range of temperatures and are transmitted to a sequentially arranged adjacent array of vacuum grippers. Thus items of municipal waste may be separated based on their thermal properties.