DEVELOPMENT OF AN ON-LINE DEVICE FOR FIRMNESS SENSING OF TOMATOES

摘要

An on-line device for firmness sensing of tomatoes is presented It consists in two small plungers (3 mm diameter) creating into the fruits a slight elastic peel deformation. The tomatoes are rolling on an endless conveyor and push on these plungers which are mounted at the extremities of two Cantilever beams. When a fruit passes over a plunger, the load applied on the beam produces a deflection. Both load and displacement are measured and the tomatoes firmness is computed in real time.