Technology

The Inframatic 9200 uses Near Infrared Technology (NIT) to determine moisture, protein and other grain characteristics. NIT instruments can be designed in various ways, and use different technologies. In the following sections we will explain the solutions we selected, and why we selected them.

For an introduction to NIT technology, how it works and how it can be used,
please download Introduction to NIT.

Spinning filter optics

Spinning filter technology is very rapid and performs several scans per second. This makes it possible to analyze many portions of a wholegrain sample, in a very short time. The Inframatic 9200 analyzes 100 portions of the sample in only 40 seconds, performing a full analysis of each portion!

Grain analysis is only one of the advanced applications where filter technology is used. Other examples include fiberoptic telecom equipment, blood analysis and anaestetics monitoring during surgery.

NIT spectroscopy

Basically an instrument can work in either reflectance or transmittance mode. In both modes you measure how much light is absorbed by the sample. In reflectance the detector is placed on the same side of the sample as the light source, whereas in transmittance the detector is placed on the other side of the sample. In effect it is the very same thing, since in transmittance as well as in reflectance, the light doesn't actually pass through the grain kernels, but merely passes through the sample "bouncing" between the kernels. During the "bouncing", some of the light is absorbed by the kernels.

Multiple Linear Regression

When performing an analysis, an NIT grain analyzer needs to convert the spectral information it has collected into a protein or moisture content. There are several techniques available for the task and the Inframatic 9200 typically uses Multiple Linear Regression (MLR). MLR gives very robust calibrations and can successfully be used also when only a few samples are available for calibration development, which is not true of for example ANN.