Look Alike Polymer Sorting | AISORT
Capability Overview
Look-Alike Polymer Sorting
AISORT sorts light-colored, visually similar polymers — for example white PET vs white PP, or natural HDPE vs clear PP — that look identical to standard RGB cameras and are difficult for conventional NIR once surfaces are clean and unprinted. Look-alike sorting targets streams where color is not a reliable discriminator and material purity must be verified by spectral or multi-sensor signatures.
Capability boundary: AISORT currently sorts light-colored and colored look-alike polymers (visual sorting purity 95%+). Black or carbon-black polymers are not supported for material sorting today — carbon black absorbs the near-infrared signal required to distinguish black PET from black HDPE/PP/PVC. Black-plastic material sorting remains an industry-wide challenge and a capability that is under development.
Supported
Light / colored look-alike polymers
White PET vs white PP, natural HDPE vs clear PP and similar visually identical pairs.
Purity
95%+
Visual sorting purity benchmark for light-colored look-alike streams.
Not supported
Black plastics
Carbon black absorbs NIR; black-polymer material sorting is under development.
Recommended approach
1. Confirm the polymer pair
Identify the exact look-alike pair (e.g., white PET vs white PP) and its contamination level before committing to a platform.
2. Choose the sensing layer
For light-colored look-alikes, hyperspectral or multi-sensor fusion provides the spectral contrast that plain RGB lacks.
3. Validate on your material
Run a material trial to confirm purity and recovery on the target stream, because surface condition, labels and fillers change the spectral signature.