EJPAU 2011. Souri S. , Zare D. , Loghavi M. DESIGN, FABRICATION AND EVALUATION OF A MOISTURE-BASED FIG SORTER

Electronic Journal of Polish Agricultural Universities (EJPAU) founded by all Polish Agriculture Universities presents original papers and review articles relevant to all aspects of agricultural sciences. It is target for persons working both in science and industry,regulatory agencies or teaching in agricultural sector. Covered by IFIS Publishing (Food Science and Technology Abstracts), ELSEVIER Science - Food Science and Technology Program, CAS USA (Chemical Abstracts), CABI Publishing UK and ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publisher - full membership). Presented in the Master List of Thomson ISI.

2011
Volume 14
Issue 4

Topic:

Agricultural Engineering

ELECTRONIC
JOURNAL OF
POLISH
AGRICULTURAL
UNIVERSITIES

Souri S. , Zare D. , Loghavi M. 2011. DESIGN, FABRICATION AND EVALUATION OF A MOISTURE-BASED FIG SORTER, EJPAU 14(4), #13.
Available Online: http://www.ejpau.media.pl/volume14/issue4/abs-13.html

DESIGN, FABRICATION AND EVALUATION OF A MOISTURE-BASED FIG SORTER

Saman Souri¹, Dariush Zare², Mohammad Loghavi¹
¹ Agricultural Engineering Department, Shiraz University
² Biosystems Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Iran

ABSTRACT

The main objective of the study is to design and fabricate a moisture-based fig sorter. Based on some physical properties of fig fruit which are affected by moisture content, the coefficient of static friction and rolling resistance were introduced as the key characteristics in fig sorting. Considering the mentioned characteristics, a test rig was fabricated. The rig consists of a horizontal feeding belt and three inclined sorting belts driven by an electric motor. The angle of each sorting belt can be manually adjusted. In order to evaluate the sorter, freshly harvested figs having different moisture contents were fed into the sorter. A factorial experiment with two factors including four levels of belt speed (7.2, 8.4, 9.4 and 10.6 m·min^-1) and 9 levels of belt slope arrangements (8, 9, 10 – 8, 9, 11 – 8, 9, 12 – 8, 10, 11 – 8, 10, 12 – 9, 10, 11 – 9, 10, 12 – 9, 11, 12 – 10, 11, 12 degree) were conducted in a completely randomized design in four replications. A sorting index was introduced to show the performance of the sorter. Results have shown that the belt slope arrangement and belt speed both have highly significant effect on sorting accuracy. The best sorting accuracy of about 80% was obtained at belt speed of 9.4 m·min^-1 and belt slope arrangement of 8, 9, 10 degrees.

Key words: fig, sorter, physical properties, coefficient of friction, rolling angle.

Saman Souri
Agricultural Engineering Department,
Shiraz University
P.O. Box 7144165186, Shiraz, Iran

Dariush Zare
Biosystems Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Iran
P.O. Box 7144165186, Shiraz, Iran
Phone: +98 711 6138192; Fax: +98 711 2286104
email: dzare@shirazu.ac.ir

Mohammad Loghavi
Agricultural Engineering Department,
Shiraz University
P.O. Box 7144165186, Shiraz, Iran

Responses to this article, comments are invited and should be submitted within three months of the publication of the article. If accepted for publication, they will be published in the chapter headed 'Discussions' and hyperlinked to the article.