Two electronic fruits (SEP-1, Simulated Electronic Product, developed in Scotland, and Techmark IS-100, Instrumented Sphere, developed in USA) have been compared in laboratory tests and then used to evaluate handling operations, in several cooperatives of two areas of Spain: Lérida (pome fruits) and Valencia (stone fruits). Advantages of each device were evaluated. Harvest, mechanical bin unloading, and grading line transfers and sizers were identified as operations causing fruit damage

Barreiro Elorza, Pilar

Garcia, J.L.

Ruiz-Altisent, Margarita

Vicente, M.

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Use of electronic fruits to evaluate fruit damage along the handling process.

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A G E N G 
MILANO '94 
REPORT N. 94-G-045 
USE OF ELECTRONIC FRUITS TO EVALUATE FRUIT DAMAGE 
ALONG THE HANDLING PROCESS 
J. L. Garcia, P. Barreiro, M. Ruiz-Altisent and M. Vicente 
Departamento de Ingenieria Rural, Universidad Politicnica, 
Madrid, Spain 
SUMMARY: 
Two electronic fruits (SEP-1, Simulated Electronic Product, developed in 
Scotland, and Techmark IS-100, Instrumented Sphere, developed in USA) have 
been compared in laboratory tests and then used to evaluate handling operations, 
in several cooperatives of two areas of Spain: Lenda (pome fruits) and Valencia 
(stone fruits). 
Advantages of each device were evaluated. Harvest, mechanical bin unloading, 
and grading line transfers and sizers were identified as operations causing fruit 
damage. 
KEYWORDS: Instrumented Sphere, Damage, Fruit 
1. Introduction 
In the last years, several devices ("electronic fruits") have been developed to evaluate 
accelerations and forces during the course of the handling process, in order to improve 
these operations by avoiding fruit damage. The electronic fruits are introduced through 
the mechanical operations as a real fruit, giving information of the impacts suffered by 
the fruits in the process. 
SEP-1 (Simulated Electronic Product), developed by the SAC (Scottish Agricultural 
Centre), is a non-spherical device of 257 g. The sensitive area is based on the piezo-
electric effect (Anderson, 1990). It is equiped with a clock, a memory and a 
rechargeable internal batery, and detects and classifies impacts into eigth damage levels 
(0-7). 
Techmark IS-100, developed by the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station and 
USDA's Agricultural Research Service, is a spherical device of 300.6 g, equiped with 
a tri-axial accelerometer, and also with a clock, a memory and a rechargeable internal 
batery (Zapp et al., 1989). This device is able to identify the type of the impacted 
surface by measuring the peak acceleration and velocity change (Brown et al., 1990); 
these data, combined with available impact damage threshold results (Schulte-Pason et 
al., 1990), can be used to determine where bruise damage may occur. 
Timm et al. (1989) reported that a multiple linear regression based on peak acceleration, 
impact duration, velocity change (parameters measured by the IS-100) and Magness-
Taylor firmness provided good predictions for bruise dimensions. 
Both devices have been already used to evaluate handling operations. SEP-1 has been 
used by Jare'n (1991) to evaluate onion packing lines. IS-100 has been used to evaluate 
apple packing lines (Brown et al., 1990), apple transportation (Schulte-Pason et al., 
1989), onion packing lines (Timm et al., 1991) and tomato and bell pepper packing 
lines (Sargent et al., 1992). 
2. Material and methods 
Two types of experiments were carried out with the electronic fruits SEP-1 and IS-100: 
laboratory experiments and real handling process tests. 
2.1 Laboratory experiments 
Both electronic fruits were dropped from different heights onto the following surfaces: 
- Steel, flat surface. Heights: 1, 3 and 6 cm. 
- Steel, 2.1 cm curvature radius. Heights: 1, 3 and 6 cm. 
- Steel, 1 cm curvature radius. Heights: 1, 3 and 6 cm. 
- Poron 15250, flat surface. Heights: 20, 40 and 60 cm. 
- Pasteboard, flat surface. Heights: 20, 40 and 60 cm. 
- Apple, 3.8 cm curvature radius, average firmness 22 N (8 mm diameter probe). 
Heights: 10, 20 and 40 cm. 
"Golden Delicious" apples (after storage, average firmness 22 N) were subjected to the 
same drops and produced bruise volume was measured, using the equation of Chen and 
Sun (1981). Ten repetitions were made of each test. 
2.2. Handling process tests 
Tests were carried out in two areas of Spain: Le'rida (pome fruits) and Valencia (stone 
fruits). Both electronic fruits were used to evaluate harvest, transport, handling and 
grading. In every case, the real procedure was observed, and then repeated with the 
electronic fruit; 2-4 repetitions were made at each operation. 
3. Results 
3.1. Laboratory experiments 
Laboratory tests snowed a good relationship between peak acceleration, parameter 
measured by the IS-100, and SEP-1 digit, with slight variations among the different 
surfaces (Table 1). 
Lower values of peak acceleration and SEP-1 digit were obtained with curved surfaces 
(Table 1, Fig. 1). This result needs further study. 
Prediction of bruise damage from electronic fruit parameters was not so accurate and 
depended on the impacted surface (Table 1). Apple (considered as impact surface) 
showed low values of peak acceleration (IS-100, Fig. 1) and SEP-1 digit, but bruise 
damage caused in drop tests was higher than that expected from electronic fruit data. 
The reason of these differences has to be searched. Deformation is a critical parameter 
in fruit bruising, and it is influenced by the viscoelastic behaviour of apple, while steel 
and poron can be considered as elastic materials. It can be the cause of the different 
results with apple. 
3.2. Handling process tests 
Values displayed by the electronic fruits in handling processes have been compared with 
the values measured in the laboratory, showing that in most cases damage thresholds 
were clearly overpassed during handling and procesing operations. Harvest (in rough 
conditions), mechanical bin unloading, and grading line transfers and sizers were 
identified as operations causing fruit damage (Tables 2 and 3). 
Results in pome fruits (Le'rida) showed that bin unloading and sizing were operations 
causing more damage, especially when unloading was carried out manually (Table 2). 
Usually, cooperatives in Le'rida are not large enough to carry out bin unloading by water 
inmersion, and it is made manually or with a mechanical unloader. 
Tests in Valencia (stone fruits) snowed also that fruit sizing was the most damage 
producing operation, though a rough harvest can be even worse (Tables 2 and 3). 
At grading lines, the main damage is caused at jumps and also when the fruit falls from 
the sizer. It has been shown that most of the impacts could be eliminated by changing 
the rubber foam usually weaken and by adding brushes under the sizers so that the fruit 
is slowed down during falling. 
There are some effects which can not be measured using the electronic fruits. Impacts 
against a bin's edge or a hook give equal or lower values of peak acceleration and SEP-
1 digit, while the results are very different, since a hook impact can cause skin 
damages. 
H, 
cm 
Steel, 
1 
3 
6 
Steel, 
1 
3 
6 
Steel, 
1 
3 
6 
Poron, 
20 
40 
60 
Pasteb., 
20 
40 
60 
Apple, 
10 
20 
40 
A(IS), 
g's 
flat 
43 
89 
128 
2.1 cm 
37 
76 
121 
1 cm 
39 
74 
114 
flat 
90 
178 
231 
flat 
111 
155 
354 
3.8 cm 
46 
54 
84 
V(IS), 
m/s 
surface 
0.54 
0.96 
1.29 
curvature 
0.58 
1.04 
1.45 
curvature 
0.61 
1.06 
1.49 
surface 
2.67 
3.72 
4.22 
surface 
2.71 
3.23 
4.14 
curvature 
2.21 
2.52 
3.54 
D(SEP) 
2 
4.3 
6.9 
radius 
1 
2.6 
4.7 
radius 
1 
3 
4.5 
2.9 
5.1 
>7 
2.8 
4.4 
>7 
radius 
1 
2 
3.3 
BD, 
mm 
0 
12.0 
15.7 
7.4 
11.9 
14.2 
6.5 
10.9 
12.7 
2.5 
3.2 
6.4 
0 
3.4 
9.6 
10.9 
15.8 
22.1 
BV, 
mm3 
0 
275 
556 
64 
332 
577 
50 
289 
502 
2 
8 
51 
0 
8 
193 
216 
677 
1830 
Table 1. Parameters obtained by dropping onto different surfaces the devices IS-100 and 
SEP-1, and "Golden Delicious" apples (mean of 10drops). H: drop height. A(IS):peak 
acceleration. V(IS): velocity change. D(SEP); SEP-1 digit. BD: bruise diameter. BV: 
bruise volume 
en 
0 
CD 
tn 
CO 
CJ 
> N 
^ > 
• H 
CJ 
O 
r — I 
CD 
> 
5. 5 
5 
4. 5 
4 H 
3. 5 
3 -
2 .5 -
2 -
1 .5 -
1 
0 . 5 H 
0 
0 
o 
+o 
o 
o 
o 
) * : £&>& 
o 
o o 
— I 1 ,
 r 
100 200 
~i 1 — 
400 300  500 
Peak a c c e l e r a t i o n , g^s 
A S t e e l ( f l a t p l a t e ) x S t e e l ( 1 cm r a d i u s ) 
• A p p l e + P o r o n 15250 o P a s t e b o a r d 
Fig. 1. Values of peak acceleration, g 's, and velocity change, mis, measured by the 
device IS-100, for different impact surfaces 
Operation 
Harvest 
Apple harvest; carefiil operation 
Apple harvest; rough operation 
Peach harvest; careful operation 
Peach harvest; rough operation 
Bin transport 
Inside the field 
From the field to the storage center 
Electronic fruit parameters 
30/0.71 / 1 
44/ 1.13 / 2 
33/0.80 / -
102/ 1.29 / -
22/0.29 / 1 
40/ 1.59 / 1 
-: no data 
Table 2. Maximum values of peak acceleration, g 's (IS-100), velocity change, mis (IS-
100) and SEP digit (SEP-1) in fruit harvest and transport 
3.3. Comparison of electronic fruits 
IS-100 spherical shape seemed to be more suitable than SEP-1 non-spherical shape. 
SEP-1 tended to lay over one side in the packing lines, causing some irregular results. 
Impacts in the non-sensitive sides were not detected. However, a sufficient number of 
repetitions gave satisfactory results, similar to those from the IS-100 (Tables 2 and 3). 
4. Conclusions 
Both electronic fruits Techmark IS-100 and SEP-1 have proved to be useful detecting 
damage producing operations in Spanish cooperatives. The spherical shape of IS-100 
seem to be more suitable. 
The relationship between electronic fruit parameters and fruit bruise damage seem to be 
different against elastic surfaces (steel, poron) than against viscoelastic surfaces (apple). 
A protocol was established to evaluate fruit handling operations. 
References 
1) Anderson, G. The development of artificial fruits and vegetables. 
Proceedings of the Workshop on Impact Damage of Fruits and Vegetables. 
Zaragoza (Spain) 1990, 133-139 
2) Brown, G. K., N. L. Schulte-Pason, E. J. Timm, C. L. Burton and D. E. 
Marshall. Apple packing line impact damage reduction. Applied Engineering in 
Agriculture 1990, 6(6):789-794 
1. Apple line 
2. Apple line 
3. Apple line 
4. Apple line 
5. Manual line 
6. Peach line 
7. Peach line 
8. Apricot line 
9. Citrus line 
Bin unloading 
66/0.8/2 
125/1.8/3 
-
53/0.7/1 
66/1.7/-
41/2.1/-
132/1.4/-
-
85/0.9/-
Transfers 
34/0.5/2 
34/0.7/2 
"-
-
-
92/1.3/-
102/1.3/-
75/0.8/-
58/0.8/-
Washers 
-
-
54/0.8/2 
36/0.5/1 
-
-
-
-
-
Sizers 
77/1.0/3 
84/1.3/2 
60/1.0/2 
45/2.2/1 
-
47/2.3/-
241/2.6/-
82/1.1/-
103/0.9/-
-: No data 
Table 3. Maximum values of peak acceleration, g's (IS-100), velocity change, mis (IS-
100) and SEP digit (SEP-1) in fruit grading lines 
3) Brown, G. K., N. L. Schulte-Pason and E. J. Timm. Impact classification using 
the instrumented sphere. ASAE Paper No. 90-6001, 1990 
4) Chen, P. and Z. Sun. Impact parameters related to bruise injury in apples. 
ASAE Paper No. 81-3041, 1981 
5) Jaren, C. Utilizacion de productos electrdnicos simulados (SEPs) para la 
determinacidn de datios ocasionados en una linea de manipulacidn de cebollas 
(Use of simulated electronic products (SEPs) for damage determination in a 
onion packing line). Proceedings of the 23 International Conference of 
Agricultural Machinery. Zaragoza (Spain) 1991, 455-463 
6) Sargent, S. A., J. K. Brecht and J. J. Zoellner. Instrumented sphere impact 
analyses of tomato and bell pepper packing lines. Applied Engineering in 
Agriculture 1992, 8(l):76-83 
7) Schulte-Pason, N. L., E. J. Timm, G. K. Brown, D. E. Marshall and C. L. 
Burton. Apple damage assessment during intrastate transportation. ASAE Paper 
No. 89-6051, 1989 
8) Schulte-Pason, N. L., E. J. Timm and G. K. Brown. Apple, peach and pear 
impact damage thresholds. ASAE Paper No. 90-6002, 1990 
9) Timm, E. J., N. L. Schulte-Pason, G. K. Brown and C. L. Burton. Apple and 
impact surface effects on bruise size. ASAE Paper No. 89-6048, 1989 
10) Timm, E.J., G. K. Brown, R.C.Brook, N. L. Schulte-Pason and C. L. Burton. 
Impact bruise estimates for onion packing lines. Applied Engineering in 
Agriculture 1991, 7(5):571-576 
11) Zapp, H. R., G. K. Brown, P. R. Amstrong and S. Sober. Instrumented sphere 
performance: dynamic measurements and demonstration. ASAE Paper No. 89-
0008, 1989 


Use of electronic fruits to evaluate fruit damage along the handling process.

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