DEVELOPMENT OF A MANUALLY OPERATED MANGO DICING MACHINE
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Date
2009
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Publisher
MPUAT, Udaipur
Abstract
Pickling is one of the old methods of food preservation. Dicing is most important operation in mango pickle making process. Manual labour is mostly used in cottage and small scale mango pickle processing industry for dicing operation. The mangoes are available only for short period. Hence, hiring labour for short period is difficult due to labour scarcity and higher labour incurs higher cost. Also manual cutting is unhygienic and poses danger to operators. Therefore, a research project was undertaken to develop a manually operated mango dicing machine with a view to introducing for cottage level and small scale pickle industry in India.
The physical characteristics of two mango varieties namely length, breadth, thickness and weight were determined. These dimensions are very important in determining the size of blades, height of the blades particularly spacing blades and number of diced mangos expected from an average fruit. The spatial dimensions viz., length, breadth and thickness of mangos were determined. The data revealed that the mango of desikeri-1 variety has mean length (67.3± 4.6 mm), breadth (56.7± 3.5 mm) and thickness (49.9± 2.6 mm), while the mango of desikeri-2 variety has mean length (89.8 ± 7.8 mm), breadth (64.8 ± 3.3 mm) and thickness (58.7 ± 4.3 mm). The mean weight of desikeri-1variety was 108.031± 17.213 g and that of desikeri-2 variety was 186.083± 28.343 g.
The developed mango dicer simulates the traditional method of mango dicing, consisting of main frame, cutting blade assembly, lever mechanism, feeding and discharging hoppers. The performance of machine was evaluated in terms of capacity, dicing efficiency, breakage percentage, percentage of loss and size of diced mango. The dicer was tested using two mango varieties of 'desikeri'. The capacity, dicing efficiency, breakage percentage and percentage of loss pertaining to the mango dicing machine are 25.75 kg/h, 87.10 %, 1.74 % and 0.69 % respectively. The average size of diced mangos was 36.71±3.3 mm (L) x 33.34±3.0 mm (B) x 14.86±2.1 mm (t) for desikeri-1 variety and that of desileri-2 variety was 41.91± 4.7 mm (L) x 28.53±8.2 mm (B) x 16.79±2.4 mm (t). The mechanical cutting is faster to handle large quantities, hygienic and safe. This machine does not require any special skill to operate and no electrical power is required to operate. Hence, this machine is very useful for pickle industries having 200-250 kg per day capacity especially at off grid locations
Description
DEVELOPMENT OF A MANUALLY OPERATED MANGO DICING MACHINE
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Citation
DISSANAYAKE, 2009