Boxes of mixed Lego are put into the machine before the pieces pass beneath camera systems which use AI and machine-learning software to identify them.
Hacking said the system could recognise more than 60,000 different Lego pieces.
Once identified, jets of air direct the pieces into different chutes so they can be used to make up sets again.
He said the machine could process two pieces a second and claimed it was more than 100 times more efficient than sorting the Lego manually.
There are currently more than 10 tonnes of Lego at the Rawtenstall site waiting to be processed, he added.
The company says it believes the Brick-O-Matic is the first machine of its type in the UK.
Hacking said the network of conveyor belts and air jets had developed from an initial idea into something which “does feel very Willy Wonka or Wallace and Gromit”.