Pneumatic Fruit Decelerator Body with Compliant Ripples
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Solution Overview
Problem
In fruit harvesting, labor costs and worker availability issues persist, and existing methods using vacuum tubes and decelerators often result in fruit bruising due to high speeds and contact during handling.
Innovation Solution
A pneumatic fruit decelerator apparatus with a moving decelerator body featuring ripples or cavities to reduce frictional deceleration and maintain a pneumatic seal, combined with a passive-feed decelerator and filler system mounted on a tractor-towed carriage for efficient fruit handling and loading into bins.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If vacuum pressure is used to move fruit through the tube to the decelerator, then fruit transport efficiency is improved, but fruit bruising increases due to high speeds
Solution Approach 1:
The decelerator body is covered with a compliant material layer that cushions the fruit before and during deceleration, preventing bruising caused by high-speed impact and friction. This prior cushioning protects the fruit from damage while the vacuum system maintains efficient transport.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions the fruit from high-speed vacuum transport to a slower deceleration phase by changing the speed parameter gradually through the decelerator body. The compliant covering material allows for controlled parameter change that reduces fruit velocity without causing impact damage.
2Ease of operation
If a smooth decelerator body is used, then fruit moves easily through the system, but maintaining a pneumatic seal becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The decelerator body is covered with a flexible compliant material that can deform to maintain contact with the fruit while preserving the pneumatic seal. This flexible shell allows the system to accommodate fruit movement without compromising the vacuum seal integrity.
3Productivity
If fruit is deposited directly into bins from height, then loading efficiency is improved, but fruit damage increases due to drop impact
Solution Approach 1:
The bin is lined with a compliant material that cushions the fruit upon impact from the decelerator, reducing damage from the depositing action. This prior cushioning in the bin protects fruit while maintaining efficient loading operations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively reduces fruit bruising by slowing down fruits through compressive frictional deceleration, maintaining a pneumatic seal, and optimizing fruit bin filling processes, thereby addressing labor and handling efficiency concerns.
Implementation Method 1
compressive frictional deceleration occurs
Implementation Method 2
vacuum pressure moves the fruit through the tube to the decelerator
Data Source
AI summary
A decelerator apparatus for mounting at the end of a pneumatic or gravity-fed fruit harvesting or delivery tube. The decelerator comprises a housing with a moving decelerator body aligned with a fruit-receiving inlet connected to the delivery tube. The decelerator body, for example a padded rotating wheel, moves at a speed slower than the speed at which the fruit is delivered into the housing, includes multiple depressions or indentations for receiving and separating fruit, and further defines a compressive deceleration path that moves the fruit in a compressive but protective fit toward a housing exit, releasing the fruit after the fruit has been decelerated to the speed of the moving body.