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Design and Development of a Low Cost Power Driven Tomato and Potato Grader (2016 – 2017)

M N Amin
Farm Machinery & Postharvest Process Engineering Division, BARI, Joydebpur, Gazipur Bangladesh

M I Hossain
Farm Machinery & Postharvest Process Engineering Division, BARI, Joydebpur, Gazipur Bangladesh

M A Hoque
Farm Machinery & Postharvest Process Engineering Division, BARI, Joydebpur, Gazipur Bangladesh

K K Saha
Farm Machinery & Postharvest Process Engineering Division, BARI, Joydebpur, Gazipur Bangladesh

N Jahan
Farm Machinery & Postharvest Process Engineering Division, BARI, Joydebpur, Gazipur Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Tomato is sold without grading in the markets of Bangladesh. Since mechanical graders are not available, tomatoes are graded, manually. A rotating cylinder type tomato and potato grader was developed in Farm Machinery & Postharvest Process Engineering Division (FMPE), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) in 2016-2017. The overall dimension of the tomato grader is 3070mm×690mm×1150mm. The grader was made of locally available MS angle bar, MS flat bar, MS rod, MS sheet, MS shaft, ball-bearing, V-belt, V-pulley, and chain-sprocket, etc. An electric motor of 1 hp was used to rotate the cylinder at 17 rpm. Four graded tomatoes were obtained from the grader through four outlets of three cylinders. In the first tray, it observed that the injury percentage increased with the increase of rpm of the cylinder for tomato. In the second tray, the injury was vise versa for tomato. In the third tray, there was no relation among them. There was some problem was identified during laboratory test and injury rate was high. The grader will be modified for cherry tomato and injury will be reduced next year.

Keywords: Tomato, Potato grader, Performance, Mechanical graders

Location: Farm Machinery & Postharvest Process Engineering Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute

Start Date: 00-00-2016

End Date: 00-00-2017

Program Area: Farm Mechanization

Commodity: Farm machineries

Objectives:

a) To design and fabricate of power driven tomato and potato grader b) To test and evaluate the performance of the grader

Methodology:

The grader was fabricated at the workshop of the Farm Machinery Division of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Joydebpur, Gazipur. It was made of locally available materials. The materials used for the fabrication of different parts of the machine were MS plate, MS angle bar, MS flat bar, MS rod, MS sheet, MS shaft, ball-bearing, V-belt, V-pulley, and miscellaneous small items. The functional parts of the machine are (1) Power source (2) Power transmission (3) Three rotating cylinder (4) Frame (5) Inlet tray (6) Outlet chute. The functions of the parts are described briefly as follows: i.) Power source: A 1 kW single-phase electric motor was used as the source of power. ii.) Power transmission: In the first step rpm was stepped down from 1483 rpm to 38 rpm by using a 75mm pulley and gear reducer. A reducer gearbox of ration 10:1 was used to reduce the rpm. The rpm was further reduced to 17 in the rotary cylinder. iii.) Rotating cylinder: A rotating cylinder of 370 mm length was made of SS steel and an MS shaft. The shaft was made of 25 mm diameter. The whole cylinder was covered with simple SS 6 mm rod and both sides fixed by nut and spring washer. The cylinder was suspended on one UCP bearing fixed at one side of the shaft and the other side supported 3 small bearings. Three people were required to run the grader successfully. One person put potato and tomato to the hopper, the other person fed and another person collected potato. A performance test was conducted at FMPE Division, BARI, Gazipur on 7 June 2017.

Source of Information: Annual Research Report 2016 – 2017, Farm Machinery & Postharvest Process Engineering Division, BARI, Joydebpur, Gazipur Bangladesh

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

There were some problems were identified. The injury rate was very high. The grader will be modified for cherry tomato and the performance test will be evaluated with cherry tomato in the next year.

Knowledge Management: Report/Proceedings