India is the largest producer of the fruits like mangoes, oranges, apples, etc. Sorting of these fruits with respect to their weight has great potential in grading them and in packing them safely to avoid bruises & damages, which will improve their exports as well as providing better customer satisfaction. With this in view, an electronic weighing based fruit sorting system was developed. The system sorts fruits like mangoes, citrus, etc., into several categories based on their weights measured using an electronic weighing arrangement. This will be useful for the fruit processing industry, especially in packing of fruits. A laboratory system was developed and demonstrated. The technology was transferred to a company. A commercial system was manufactured by the licensee and installed at Sri Gajanan Cold Storage and Pack House, C/o. Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board (MSAMB), M.I.D.C., Beed, Maharashtra.
Salient Technical Features
- Singulated fruits moving on a cup conveyor system are weighed dynamically using a specially mounted load cell and sorted into different grades according to user specified weight ranges
- Range: 10 to 4000 gm.
- Accuracy: ± 7.5 gm of full range
- No of sorting stations 4 or 5, extendable
- Throughput: 2 to 3 fruits/sec