An overview of a design of an automatic prepared cane sampling system

The Sugar Research Council commissioned a study of prepared cane sampling for direct cane analysis. The objective was to design and cost an automated prepared cane sampling/subsampling system that would provide a representative cane sample at minimum cost to the sugar industry (Loughran, 1990). A further aim of this project was to give indicative costs of associated analytical procedures. In the research proposal it was stated that before the design and cost study could be started it would be necessary to obtain a functional specification for the equipment. This has been provided by the CSIRO Division of Mathematics and Statistics which has expertise in sampling (Robinson, 1990). The specification was to define the minimum frequency of sampling and the physical size of prepared cane samples which must be analysed to give a commercially acceptable assessment of the quality of the cane supply.