Measuring Impacts of Blueberries during Transportation and Packing

摘要

Blueberry is the second most important berry crop in the United States and generates great market value to the U.S. rural community. Mechanization of blueberries increases the production efficiency but also causes bruises for the fruit. In this study,transportation of blueberries from field to the packing house was evaluated using an accelerometer and data logger. The results showed that the uneven road and fast speed of the tractor could generate large vibrations and consequently cause potential bruises to the fruit. In the packing house, an empty blueberry packing line was evaluated using a miniature Instrumented Sphere (IS). We run the IS 6 times through the packing line and impacts were recorded at the transition points. The biggest impacts occurred at the beginning and end of the line. After padding 5 transition points using a water-proof Poron padding sheet, the packing line was tested using the same IS for 6 times again. The results showed that the impact level was reduced significantly atthese transition points after padding. The maximum impact was reduced by 57%, 59%, 47% and 54% at the first 4 padded transition points, respectively. Drop tests were conducted to evaluate the properties of the padding sheet and two different surfaces onthe packing line. The results confirmed that the padding sheet has the ability to reduce impacts. Further measures could be taken to reduce impacts by replacing the ramp with soft material and using loose fixation rather than rigid fixation for the rampat the transition points. This study provided a preliminary evaluation of the field transportation and packing line for blueberries, shedding light for future studies.