The Device or Measuring Properties of Sea Buckthorn Berries

A continual need exists for constant monitoring the mechanical properties of berry sea buckthorn in field conditions. These properties may be stated as follows: stem detachment force, crushing force, strength limit of peel and coefficient of relative strength of berry. The properties mentioned appear to be important to evaluate the berries suitability to mechanical machine harvesting. The aim of this paper is to design a machine for determining these properties that will allow making unique and accurate selection of berry variety in field conditions. Dependences of crushing force and strength limit of peel on the diameter and contact area of the plunger crushing the berry have been investigated on the dedicated force measurement bench. These mathematical dependences have been used as software to design the microprocessor-based device. The field experiments have shown that the proposed device can provide high accuracy in determining the strength properties of berries.