| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 農業機械工程學系 === 88 === Indian jujube is one of the main fruit in the southern part of Taiwan. In addition to the fresh market, preserved jujube also has its market niche. Slitting is one of the key factors impacting syrupping and product appearance in jujube preservation process. Manual slitting is the common practice in today’s jujube preservation industry. The development of automatic slitting machine has become essential in cutting down labor and improving quality and sanitary safety for jujube preservation industry.
The first purpose of this study was to identify the physical properties of Indian jujube; including fruit dimensions, fruit shape index, friction index, rolling angles, density, and water content. Then, based on the identified physical properties and the requirements of jujube preservation industry, an automated slitting machine was developed and tested. The outside dimensions of the developed Slitting Machine were 1355 mm, 1435 mm, and 1340 mm respectively. The developed Slitting Machine was consisted of slitting blades, conveying mechanism, push-slitting mechanism, output mechanism, collecting mechanism, and the power source. In the test operation, jujubes were fed to the developed unit manually. The push-slitting mechanism was pneumatically actuated. Jujubes were classified according to large, medium, and small diameters and pushed through respective slitting blades, which were 66 mm, 60mm, and 48 mm bore sizes respectively.
The results showed that the maximum average push-slitting force for Indian Jujube were 13.5 Kg, 12.0 Kg, and 10.6 Kg respectively. The results also showed that the total output of the developed unit was 3089 jujubes, which was equal to 250 kgs weight of jujubes, per hour per worker when the slitting speed was set at 2sec/slit. This result proved that the developed Slitting Machine out performed manual slitting in terms of productivity and labor fatigue. Straighter slit lines could reduce mechanical injury of the jujubes and have better sanitary safety. The on site test results showed that the slitting quality and productivity of the developed Slitting Machine had reached their design requirements.
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