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Design, Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of a Simple Mango Harvester

Trishna Roy
Department of Agricultural and Industrial Engineering, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur-5200, Bangladesh.

Md. Ruhul Amin
Department of Agricultural and Industrial Engineering, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur-5200, Bangladesh.

Md. Kamal Uddin Sarker
Department of Agricultural and Industrial Engineering, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur-5200, Bangladesh.

Farha Anjum Tapu
Department of Agricultural and Industrial Engineering, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur-5200, Bangladesh.

Md. Nazmul Huda
Department of Agricultural and Industrial Engineering, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur-5200, Bangladesh.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Harvesting is one of the most important agricultural and horticultural operations. In Bangladesh, mango harvesting is done traditionally by shaking, plucking with bamboo, picking by hand, by climbing on the tree and from the ground using a bamboo stick. Traditional manual harvesting is very labor-intensive and thus expensive. There are some risk factors such as the mango could be physically damaged when falling to the ground, sometimes it may fall on the people under the tree and cause accidents. Sometimes people fall from the tree on the ground and cause accidents and even die. This work concerns the development of a simple manually operated mango harvester. Two different prototypes of the harvester were designed and manufactured. One is telescopic using different diameter stainless steel pipe and another fixed height using an aluminum pipe. The harvester consists of a cutting tool, spring, clutch wire, clutch, wheel, pipe, and collecting net. The main mechanism used in this concept was a simple braking mechanism for cutting operation by using share force of cutting part. The capacity of first prototype (telescopic) and second prototype (second height) was 37.77 kg hr^-1 and 40.95 kg hr^-1 respectively. The percentage of damaged mango was lower than the manual method. The machine fabrication cost is affordable to the farmers and the harvesting cost of first prototype (telescopic) and second prototype (second height) was the same US$ 0.01 kg^-1. The simple mango harvester would be an easy solution for mango harvesting.

Keywords: Design, Fabrication, Mango harvester, Capacity, Harvesting cost

Location: Department of Agricultural and Industrial Engineering, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur-5200, Bangladesh.

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Farm Mechanization

Commodity: Mango

Objectives:

To design and development of mango plucking equipment to facilitate mango harvesting in the agricultural sector.

Methodology:

A manually operated mango harvester was developed according to tree, implement, and operator parameters. The tree height generally varies from 8m to 9m with its canopy diameter ranging from 5m to 6m. The prototype mango harvester uses a cutting and detaching principle. Before the conduction of the test, two different prototypes of this modified fruit harvester. One is telescopic using different diameter stainless steel pipe and another fixed height using an aluminum pipe. The harvester was made of locally available materials to keep the cost low. Efforts were made to keep the mechanism and operation of the machine as simple as possible. The harvester consists of the following parts: Cutting tool: It was actually used for cutting mango stem. In first prototype, a cutting plier was used as the cutting tool. It was made of iron and its weight was 350 gm. Scissors as a cutting tool were used in the second prototype. Spring: A 64mm spring was used for connecting and compressing two blades of the cutting tool. Clutch wire: It connected the movable blade with the clutch. The length of the clutch wire was different for the two prototypes. Clutch: Clutch was used for pressing the movable blade towards the fixed blade for cutting operation. It actually pulled the clutch wire which was connected to the movable blade. Wheel: In the first prototype, when the telescopic pipe was folded, the excess clutch wire was intertwined in the wheel. Collecting net: It was a 4m long collecting net made of black cloth. Two rings were attached at two openings of it. Pipe: Stainless steel pipe was used for the first prototype and 20mm diameter aluminum pipe was used for the second prototype. In the first prototype, three different diameter pipes were used for telescopic function and those pipes diameter was 20mm, 16mm and 12 mm. The main mechanism used in this concept was a simple braking mechanism for cutting operation by using share force of cutting part. The top portion of the cutting part of the equipment consisted of two sharp blades. The blade which was inserted into the pipe was fixed and the other one was movable. The movable blade was attached with a clutch by using clutch wire. A spring was attached between the movable blade & the fixed portion of the equipment. The hand lever or clutch for operating the equipment was given at the lower portion. While pressing the clutch from the bottom, the clutch wire pulled back & the spring got compressed and the movable blade moved toward the fixed blade and did the cutting job. After cutting, the mango fell through a collecting net & it can be collected without any bruising or rapture in mango skin. The moment is a turning effect of a force. It is an expression involving the product of a distance and a physical quantity, and in this way, it accounts for how the physical quantity is located or arranged. Moments are usually defined with respect to a fixed reference point; they deal with physical quantities as measured at some distance from that reference point. In principle, any physical quantity can be multiplied by the distance to produce a moment; commonly used quantities include forces, masses, and electric charge distributions. In mango harvester, moment acts on handle due to weight of scissors and collecting net which is attached in the top portion of the harvester. The total weight of the harvester is also responsible for creating a moment on the handle. To study the efficiency of the two prototypes of the harvester, a local mango orchard in Uttar Sadipur near HSTU, Dinajpur was selected. A mango tree was selected, we were harvested mango for one hour and the weight of harvested mango for each prototype was recorded. Three trials were made of the same procedure and the weight of harvested mango for each trial was recorded. Manual harvesting is also done for one hour and the data was recorded. A Simple cost analysis was done for the mango harvester. The analysis included the actual cost of the device, annual fixed cost, and variable cost. The annual fixed cost included depreciation, interest, and shelter cost. Variable cost included repair and maintenance cost and labor cost. The assumption was made as to interest 13%, shelter 0.1% per year; repair and maintenance cost 0.1% per hr, operation per day 8 hrs, annual use 400 hrs, and estimated life span 10yrs of the machine.

Source of Information: International Journal of Natural and Social Sciences, 2021, 8(2): 37-43

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

This study introduced a simple mango harvesting device that is low cost and easily affordable to the farmers. The mango harvester design was desired to have a telescopic mechanism. At first, it was fabricated as a telescopic version but due to heavyweight, it was further modified. During further modification of it, due to the unavailability of various diameter SS pipe in the local market, the second prototype was made with a single-pole aluminum pipe not a telescopic version as first prototype. The harvesting capacity of the first and second prototypes was 37.77 kg hr^-1 and 40.95 kg hr^-1 respectively. The harvesting cost of the prototypes was the same US$ 0.01 kg^-1. The percentage of damaged mango was 0.69% and 0.67% respectively for the first and second prototypes which are lower than the manual method (2.46%). The design and fabrication of this kind of simple mango harvester is the possible solution of increasing self-life, saving harvesting time, reducing labor and harvesting cost.

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