The Know Tech Visual Sorter for Lobster Grading

What is it?

A method of grading lobsters using colour to indicate the destination crate. When a lobster is placed on or removed from a digital scale, a colour appears on a screen to indicate which destination crate to place the lobster in. Each crate is assigned a color corresponding to the weight range for the crate. All lobsters that show green go in the green crate. Those that show blue go in the blue crate. And so on ...

Why use it?

Grading by colour is easier and more accurate than grading by digital weight alone. Detecting color only involves the eyes while converting a digital weight to a particular destination crate engages the whole brain. Thus color grading is less tiring for experienced operators and it is easier for an untrained operator to grade lobsters using colour.

Changing weight grades is simplified. The result is reduced costs and happier employees.

What else?

The Visual Sorter software may be fitted to existing scales and makes reverse grading with an existing scale possible, if the scale has a printer outlet.

Introducing the Visual Lobster Sorter by Know Tech

Introducing a better way to grade live lobsters

  • New, improved method of lobster grading

  • Reduces labor by 50 %

  • Easy to learn

  • Fast!

The Visual Sorter displays a different color for each weight range.

Using the Know Tech Visual Sorter, one person can grade lobsters just as fast as two people using the traditional method.

Using the Know Tech Visual Sorter, a crate of lobsters is placed on the scale. As the person grading removes each lobster from the crate, the Visual Sorter instantly indicates by color which destination crate the lobster should be placed in. The person grading simply observes the color and places the lobster in the crate associated with that color. This cuts labor costs by half.

Lobster grading the old way has involved two people and a digital scale. One person removed a lobster from the supply crate and placed it on the digital scale. The other person read the weight on the scale, removed the lobster from the scale and placed it in one of several destination crates, depending on the weight of the lobster.

The Visual Sorter is an add-on to a regular digital scale. It connects by a cable and water-proof plug to the printer port on the scale. It comes in a water-proof box that can be mounted wherever it is most convenient.

The Visual Sorter is powered by plugging into 120 volts AC. The digital scale continues to operate normally.

Starting up the Visual Sorter


The Visual Sorter is controlled just by touching the screen. On powering-up, the first screen that appears is:

The initial sign on screen for the Visual Sorter.


Grading lobsters

Touching the 12-box Visual Sorter button brings up the screen below. Notice the 12 black boxes, representing 12 destination crates. Each box shows the weight range that it covers. When a lobster is being graded, the actual recorded weight also appears in the box. Simply place a crate of lobsters on the scale and begin removing them. As each lobster is taken from the crate the correct color for the weight of the lobster will appear, indicating the destination crate.

The 12-box Lobster Grading screen.


At each corner of the screen there is an icon. The bottom two are not used for the Visual Sorter. The upper right icon returns to the opening screen.

The upper left icon calls up a menu of functions for setting up the Visual Sorter. These are shown next.

The Visual Sorter set-up screen.



Normal or Reverse Grading

Two buttons appear on the Visual Sorter set-up screen to set the grading mode.



Use these buttons to select forward or reverse grading.


Normal Grading: touch this button for Normal Grading. This means that the Visual Sorter will not reverse grade. It will only show and respond to the total weight on the scale.



Reverse Grading: touch this button for Reverse Grading. This means that the Visual Sorter will respond to the weight change as one lobster is removed from several placed in a crate on the scale. This is intended for one-person lobster grading.

The black dot shows the active grading mode.



Adjusting the crate colors

Use this button on the set-up screen to change the crate colors.
Press this button on the set-up screen to change the crate colors.

This will bring up the following screen, which shows the color assigned to each crate.

This screen shows the color assigned to each crate.



To set a new color for any particular crate the user just presses on the crate, bringing up the following screen:

Choose the new color by touching a color square.



The current crate color is shown in the upper right corner. To change it the user touches the desired color. A pencil eraser may be used if the color patches are too small for the users fingers.

When the desired color is shown in the upper right, pressing "Enter" completes the change. The user may go back to the original color by touching "Cancel".



Adjusting the weight ranges

This button allows you to adjust the weight range for each crate. This button on the set-up screen allows the user to adjust the weight range for each crate.

This button allows you to adjust the weight range for each crate.


Each of the 12 boxes has controls to increase or decrease the upper or lower weight limit for the box. The user can adjust the limits by pressing the arrow symbols for each weight to be adjusted. Pressing "Apply" accepts the changes and returns to the previous screen. Pressing "Cancel" erases any changes and returns to the previous screen.

The crate will become active (show its color) if the weight of the lobster is less than, or equal to the upper weight boundary AND if it is greater than the lower weight boundary.

The weight ranges assigned to the different crates does not affect the person grading lobster. The procedure remains the same - if it lights up green, the lobster goes in the green crate; if it lights up red, the lobster goes in the red crate, and so on.



Saving sets of grading weights

Use this button to assign a name to the current weight-range set. Press this button on the set-up screen to assign a name to the current weight-range set.

The


This screen lets the user assign a name to the current set of grading weights and save it within the Visual Sorter.

Pressing "Save to new file" brings up a screen that provides a keyboard. The user types a name for the set and presses "Save".

After one or more sets have been saved in this manner, when the above screen is called up, the different names already saved will appear as a list. Touching one of the names will hi-lite it. Then pressing "Save to selected file" will cause that set of weights to be replaced by the current set of weights. Alternatively, pressing "Erase selected file" will cause that name to disappear from the list.

Pressing "Back to Menu" goes back to the Visual Sorter set-up screen.



Loading previously named sets of grading weights



Pressing Load Ranges brings up a screen to choose the set of grading weights to load. Pressing "Load Ranges" on the Visual Sorter set-up screen brings up the following screen:

The user can pick a named set of grading weights from this screen.


This screen shows the names of all the stored sets of grading weights. Only one set is shown in the above screen (Ranges1).

A name is selected by touching it. Then pressing "Load" will cause the weights for the name selected to be loaded and the set-up screen will appear.

Pressing "Cancel" will return to the set-up screen with no changes.



To return to lobster grading



Touch the "Back to Visual Sorter" on the Visual Sorter set-up screen to return to lobster grading.



The set-up for the 8-box Visual sorter works the same except there are 8 boxes instead of 12.

© Copyright 2005 Know Tech Environmental Inc.