Apple Orientation on Two Conveyors: Performance and Predictability Based on Fruit Shape Characteristics

摘要

Two sizes of 11 apple cultivars were placed on a bicone conveyor used in commercial sorting machines and on an experimental conveyor. In less than 18 seconds, apples were oriented into one of two modes, either parallel (desired) or nonparallel (undesired) to the stem/calyx axis. The commercial conveyor gave desired orientation to 94% of 88 Washington State Red Delicious apples but to only 4% of 772 apples from eastern cultivars