Development of a motorized tomato (Solanumlycopersicum l.) Slicer

Abstract

In an attempt to solve the problem associated with slicing of tomato which is an important operation required in tomato drying industries, a motorized tomato slicer was designed fabricated and tested. In tomato processing industry, slicing of tomato is usually done to increase the surface area of the product for effective drying. The machine was designed to slice tomatoes into recommended size of 20mmthick for fast drying. The slicer consists mainly of a feeding unit, cutting compartment, collection unit, power section and tool frame. Tomato fruits fed through the feeding unit go down to the cutting compartment by gravitational force and the reciprocating motion of slicing knives cut the fruits by shearing action. In the design of the tomato slicer, physical properties of UC-82B tomato variety were considered. Results of performance evaluation showed that the machine has anoutputcapacity of468kg/h, percentage loss of 28.40%, and slicing efficiency of 60.34%.