• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2007

In industry, multihead automatic combination weighers are used to provide accurate weights at high speed. To minimize giveaway, greater accuracy is desired, especially for valuable products. This paper describes a combination algorithm based on bit operation. The combination method is simple and saves time, since only the elements to be considered for combination are generated. The total number of combinations from which the desired output weight is chosen can be increased by extending the combination from memory hoppers to include some weighing hoppers. For an eight-channel weigher, three or four combination elements are best. In addition to targeting approximately equal amounts of products in each channel, this study investigated other schemes. Simulation results show that schemes targeting combination elements with an unequal distribution of the output weight are more accurate. The most accurate scheme involves supplying products to all memory and weighing hoppers before commencing the combination operation. However, this scheme takes more time.