Development of fruit dropping mechanisms for sorting of fruits

Most of the conventional fruit sorters employ mechanical weigh scale for grading the fruits based on weight. These sorters make use of force balance weigh scale method for fruit dropping which drops the fruit based on the preset counter balance weight. This mechanism is mainly used for grading and sorting of fruits based on weight alone. This paper describes the development / automation made over such mechanical scales to sort the fruits not only based on single weight parameter but also based on the logical combination of multiple parameters like size, colour, weight, etc. using solenoid actuators. This paper also describes the design, development, fabrication and testing of new, compact fruit dropping mechanisms using pneumatic / solenoid actuators which creates a gap in the fruit path at the sorting stations for dropping the fruit carriers during sorting of fruits.