elmor C3 High Sensitive Seed Counter

The PC-controlled highly sensitive elmor C3 seed counter is preferably used for scientific counting tasks in laboratories, universities, research and breeding projects or in seed quality control. Parts that can be processed with the C3 seed counter include:

  • Dust fine plant seeds such as Arabidopsis thaliana or Begonia semperflorens
  • Vegetable seeds, grains or seeds of ornamental plants
  • Insects, pupae and eggs
  • Small mechanical parts
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Semiconductor chips, etc.

Technical data

  • Counts Parts from 0.1 to 18mm in diameter
  • For spheres of 2mm diameter: Counting rate: 50’000 parts per hour
  • Typical counting error: less than 1/1000
  • Runs under Windows
  • Serial Port (RS232) or USB needed

Software included

  • Totalizer
  • Preset Counter

Additional software available

  • Direct determination of the 1000 Kernel Weight
  • Analysis of the size of the counted particles: Particle Size Analysis

Additional information

The C3 counter is controlled exclusively via a PC. Thus, new solutions for the ever-increasing demands of customers are possible. The results of all operations are logged and saved. This is an essential prerequisite for quality control and traceability of test results. The parts that can be counted with the C3 seed counter can be extremely small and irregular in shape. Therefore, they are very difficult to handle manually. Dosing these parts with scales is often faulty or impossible. Therefore, the use of C3 opens new options, as the number of smallest parts in the sub-milligram range can often be determined faster and more accurately by counting than by weighing. Additional measurements can be made with additional software modules. These are currently: direct determination of the 1000 grain weight and the grain size analysis.

A built-in self-test makes it possible to check the error-free function of the counter at any time.

Accessories for the Seed Counter model C3

Conveyor bowls

The parts to be counted are transported in a vibrating conveyor and are singularised by means of a sorting element. Both the conveyor bowl as well as the sorting element can be selected among different variants , depending on the properties of the product to be counted.

A) Standard conveyor bowl made of anodised Aluminium with universal – sorting element FS0. FS0 is manually adjustable for all part sizes from 0.1 to 18 mm in diameter.

B) Special sorting elements instead of FS0:

  • FS1, manually adjustable, optimised for cereals, rice, paddy and products of similar shape and size
  • FS2: manually adjustable, optimised for corn, soybeans, peas, beans and products with similar shape and size
  • FS3: fine-drive adjustable in height and width, for very flat seeds or flat mechanical parts with the following dimensions: width: 1 to 10 mm, height: 0.5 – 8 mm, maximum length: 20 mm

C) Special conveyor bowl with additional lateral opening for mechanically eliminating of accompanying substances, suitable for corn, cereals, soybean, paddy, etc. The height of this opening can be adjusted from 0 to 5 mm and allows unwanted accompanying substances laterally
be sorted out. Not suitable for parts smaller than 1 mm in diameter. Can be used with sorting elements FS0, FS1, FS2, or FS3 combined.

D) To meet the needs of various industries, the conveyor bowls can be made ​​of other materials . These bowls are for example extremely impact resistant or correspond to the rules of the FDA, etc. Such bowls can be made ​​from various basic materials like PEEK, Polyamide (PA), Polypropylene (PP) and others.

E) The standard aluminum bowls can be treated or coated in order to satisfy specific requirements. With increased mechanical stress or when in contact with food, the surface can be hard anodized. A hard coating of nickel has a high surface hardness and is FDA approved, Polyurethane (PU) coating permits rapid transport of heavy mechanical parts and prevents noise and wear. Again, FDA approved materials can be chosen.

F) Feeder Bowl with vertical outlet: Short cycle times are possible, as the parts to be counted leave the bowl after a short run time. Advantageous when many different lots must be processed, often used for the fast 1000 grain weight measurement. Used for seeds having a nearly round shape which can be easily singularised like Crop, Soy, Corn, Canola etc. The seeds should have a diameter of 2 mm or more. Volume 0.8 litres, or about 2500 kernels of Corn.

Automatic 1000 Grain Weight Measurement

By means of an additional software module, an electronic balance and a special frame, the precision counter C3 can be used for the direct determination of the 1000 kernel weight of a sample. Both the C3 as well as a balance are connected with the control computer. A freely selectable quantity is counted and falls on the scale pan. At the end of the counting operation the weight of the sample and the corresponding number of particles is transmitted automatically to the PC, where the 1000 kernel weight is calculated.

With the conventional 1000 grain weight determination, the number of items and the weight must be entered manually into a calculating machine. In many cases, exactly 500 or 1000 kernels are counted and weighed; and then the 1000 grain weight can be determined without no arithmetic exercise, but the danger exists that the result is falsified by separation effects during the operation of the vibrating conveyor (grain size selection). With the simultaneously determination of seed quantity and weight all potentially faulted manual inputs are eliminated. But most important is that in this procedure the particle size selection is impossible.

If necessary the result can be printed out or processed electronically. Further the danger of the grain size selection can completely be avoided.

Particle Size Analyzer

The precision seed counter C3 can be used as particle size analyzer to determine the particle size distribution of a given sample by means of a special software module.
The size of the singularised and free falling parts is measured in one dimension with a resolution of some 1/100 mm. This measurement is intended primarily to compare different samples qualitatively. With spherical parts the measurements give also quantitative information.
The measured values of the particle size analyzer are stored as txt file. This makes it possible to further process the raw data individually by means of appropriate standard software.

Filling Carousel

The C3 parts counter can be combined with the elmor 780 carousel filler. The carousel filler allows semi automatic, to a large extent unsupervised filling of vials, tubes, small containers as well as bags from paper, glassine or composite material.

Feeding Conveyor elmor 610

Feeding conveyor and storage hopper for automatic refilling of the conveyor bowls of our counting machines C1, C3 or CX

elmor Green Design

Our label for:

  • high energy efficiency
  • longevity
  • no standby power loss
  • most components may be recycled
  • production without solvents, ROHS conformity