International Journal of Advanced Technology & Engineering Research (IJATER)

ISSN No: 2250-3536 Volume 2, Issue 6, Nov. 2012 110

MINIMIZATION OF TOMATO DAMAGING DURING
LOADING AND UNLOADING PROCESS
R.Rajesh Kumar,
3
rd
year, Mechatronics Engineering,
Kongu Engineering College, Erode, India Contact Id: Mail2rajesh70@Gmail.Com
K.V.Balaji
3
rd
year, Mechanical Engineering,
Vidyaa Vikas College Of Engineering And Technology, Erode, India. Contact Id: Bala92mech@Gmail.Com
M.F. Mohammed Jubair,
3
rd
year, Mechanical Engineering,
K.S.Rangasamy College Of Technology, Erode, India. Contact Id: Jub1993@Gmail.Com


Introduction
Economical losses due to mechanical damages are of major
concern in transport processes for industrial tomatoes in India.
An experimental analysis of the fruit damage and influencing
factors during combine harvest and road transport to the
processing plant showed an accumulating effect of mechanical
load on fruit damage. During combine harvest, numerous
mechanical impacts (average force amplitudes between 30 and
70 N) on fruit occurred with resulting damage degree of 5 to
15 weight-% depending on fruit maturity stage. During two
hours road transport, there were a static mechanical load
(about 44 N) in the lower fruit layers of tomato bulk due to
filling height of about 1.3 m. Additional vibrations with
relatively small amplitude (peak values between 9 and 14 N)
were excited by uneven road surface (roughness, potholes) as
well as by truck accelerations. In general, no significant
correlations were found between tri-axial accelerations of
truck and mechanical loads on tomato fruits during transport.
Tomato damage after transport depended strongly on
mechanical pre-load due to harvest. When carefully hand-
picked tomato fruits were transported by truck, then severe
damages up to 4 weight-% were caused. However, the damage
degree was appreciably higher, when pre-loaded tomatoes
were used. A mechanical pre-load on hand-picked tomatoes by
a single drop from 1 m onto wooden plate caused up to 7
weight-% severe damage. After transport, severe damage was
increased to more than 30 weight-% of tomatoes. Combined
effect of mechanical harvest and bulk height during transport
leaded to high mechanical load and damage of tomato fruit.
YESTERDAYS SOLUTION TO
THIS PROBLEM:
In previous days, people transport tomatoes load as like the
sand load. They fill their lorry/truck full of tomatoes without
any partition as shown in fig1. Even though it reduces loading
and unloading time, nearly half of the loads of tomatoes were
damaged.

Fig.1
TODAYS SOLUTION TO THE
PROBLEM:
Now a days, People using a small plastic basket for the safe
transportation of tomatoes as shown in fig2. The mail
disadvantage of this system is, loading and unloading of
tomatoes would take more and more time. Though we arrange
the separate basket for tomatoes, fruits at the bottom of the
basket were damaged.

Fig 2
International Journal of Advanced Technology & Engineering Research (IJATER)

ISSN No: 2250-3536 Volume 2, Issue 6, Nov. 2012 111
FUTURE SOLUTION TO THE
PROBLEM:

Now we introduce a new innovate solution to this problem.
Here we introduce a series of plates in the lorry loading area.
This plate acts like a tray (or drawer). Here each tray is filled
with tomatoes of suitable permissible load, so the damaging of
tomatoes is reduced up to 99% and the loading and unloading
time is very much reduced. Here we discuss about how the
problem is implemented.

COMPARISON OF THREE
PROBLEMS:

S.N
o
Solution Advantage Disadvantage
1 Past Reduced
loading
/unloading time
Nearly half of
the fruits were
damaged
2 Present Damaging of
fruit is reduced
at certain extent
Huge loading/
unloading
time
3 Future Should having
minimum
damaging &
loading/
unloading time
Nil


DESCRIPTION OF OUR PROJECT:

1. We setup the series of metal plate in the loading
area for the lorry/truck to avoid the damaging of
the lower tomatoes due to the load caused by the
top ones

2. Each plate/tray consists of three holes fitted with the
rubber crock.

3. Before loading of the tomatoes, the tray at the top is
filled with water.

4. After filling the water, the tomatoes are spread in
that area without any special care. Because, the
water in the tray can make the tomatoes float and
not to damage.

5. Now the rubber crocks are removed, so the water in
the upper tray is transferred to the tray below it.

6. Again the second tray is filled with tomatoes without
any care and after filling, the rubber crock of the tray
(below the upper one) is removed.

7. The same process is repeated for the other subsequent
trays.

8. During unloading time, the tipper mechanism of the
lorry is used to elevate the body and then the tray is
open one by one to get the tomatoes without any
damage.

SELECTION OF THE MATERIAL:

Here we use sheet metal which has high corrosion resistance,
strong, weight less and cheap.

So Aluminium 5052-h32 is used to make a plate. Because, it
has high corrosion resistance and good weld ability. Notably
Al 5052-32 has salt water corrosion resistance, so we use salt
water in the summer season.

Chemical Composition of Aluminium 5052-h32:

Chromium: 0.15-0.375%

Copper: 0.1%

Magnesium: 2.2-2.8%

Zinc: 0.1%

Normal gas or arc shield welding is used for the welding
process, so it is a simple one.

DESIGN OF THE TRAY:

The tray used here is shown in fig.3. It holds the tomato up to
its full height. Tomato can carry a load up to a certain limit
only. Beyond the limit it will damage, so we design tray up to
the maximum height of 25cm.



Fig.3. Tray position during transporting

Our ultimate aim is to load the tomatoes in the water up to the
maximum height of 25cm. but whenever we want load the
tomato in the water up to 25cm means, we have to fill the
water up to the height greater than 25cm. So, at the time with
water means, tomato floats at the height greater than 25cm. at
the time of releasing the water means, it will settle up to a
International Journal of Advanced Technology & Engineering Research (IJATER)

ISSN No: 2250-3536 Volume 2, Issue 6, Nov. 2012 112
height of 25cm as we required. Hence, in the each tray, we
introduce the projection (as shown in the fig.4) in the outer
side of the plate to increase the height of the tray.








Fig. 4. Tray position during loading and unloading
Various steps involved in the loading of the tray:

1. First the tray is pulled outwards, so the tray is fully
comes outside with the contact of edge at the tip. The
door of the tray is open (in the width of the plate) as
shown in fig 3.

2. Second the inside projection of the aluminium plate
is released manually upwards. This set up is then
filled with water manually up to the certain height.
Now, the heavy loads of tomatoes are directly thrown
in the water without any effect. Then the hole as
shown in fig.3 is released, so the tomato load is
slowly and carefully landed in to the bottom of the
plate.

3. If we decide to fill the tray full of tomatoes with the
help of water means, we have fill the water above the
required height of the tomato load, so the extra
projection is needed to temporally hold the water for
some time.

4. After step 2, (hole is released) the water in the upper
tray is automatically passed to the second tray and
closed the door of the tray and the process is carried
out.

5. During unloading time, the tipper mechanism is used
to elevate the loading portion and then the doors of
the each plate are opened one by one to get the
tomatoes safely.





BASIC DETAILS AND COST
ESTIMATION:

TRAY DETAILS:

Here we use a total of 5 trays with the gap of 3cm and the
dimension as

Length: 8m

Breadth: 2.4m

Height: 25cm

Thickness: 0.3cm

Cost: 56,000.

PLASTIC TOMATO BOX:

Let us consider the tomato box of size,

Length: 400mm

Width: 300mm

Height: 170mm

Cost: $11.2

TOMATO DETAILS:

Here we assume the tomato dimension as,

Diameter: 5cm

It can able to stay on the water (even salt also) for about 12hrs.
(Self analyze)

LORRY/TRUCK DETAILS:

(SELF ANALYSE)

LENGTH: 8.94m

BREADTH: 2.5m

HEIGHT: 1.3m

CALCULATION:

From the above details we can say that,

1. Each box can hold 144 tomatoes.

2. One lorry can load 155 boxes.

International Journal of Advanced Technology & Engineering Research (IJATER)

ISSN No: 2250-3536 Volume 2, Issue 6, Nov. 2012 113
But waste of tomatoes during loading, unloading and
travelling is 5%

Finally,

One lorry can hold nearly 2, 00,000 tomatoes.

Similarly,

1. Tomato in each tray = 40,000.

Here, we use 5 trays with 0.3cm gap between them.

Tomatoes in all the tray/truck = 2, 00,000

COST:

Cost of total plastic box = Rs.52, 000

Cost of aluminium plate (required) = Rs. 56000

But aluminium is the life time cost and not damaged
quickly.

COMPARISON OF ALUMINIUM
PLATE AND PLASTIC BOXES:
Plastic Box Aluminium Plate
Total nos per
truck
155 5
No of tomatoes
hold
2,00,000 2,00,000
No of undamaged
tomatoes
5% 0.001%
Cost Rs. 52,000 Rs. 56,000
Durability Less durable High durable
Safety Easily
damaged
Highly safety
Time required
for filling
Several hours 20 minutes

SPECIALITY OF THIS PROJECT:

We use water as one of the source. At the loading time itself,
we can eliminate the rotten fruits because we put the fruits
on the water. So it is very easy to identify the rotten one. So
we can transmit only the pure and good ones without
damage.

Finally we transport only good tomatoes (more in number)
without any damage with low cost. Box loading takes about
several hours but it take about half an hour for loading and
15 minutes for unloading. One man is enough to do the job
even driver itself. The same amount of water nearly 10 liter
can enough for life long. Also saltwater can be used.

COMPARISON OF PLASTIC BOX
LOADING AND TRAY LOADING:

Plastic box
loading
Tray loading
Time
consuming
Take several
hours
20 minutes
No of
employee
At least 6
members
Only one
member is
enough
Speciality Rotten fruits
cannot be
identified
Rotten fruits
can be
identified
Work done Huge work Easy work

BENEFIT TO THE
MANUFACTURES:

In order to show the profits to the manufactures, we must
consider any one of the leading truck manufacturing
company. Here, we take ASHOK LEYLAND which is
the leading truck manufactures in India.

From the internet we gather the information that, Ashok
Leylands 2011
th
turnover is Rs.11, 117.7 cores. The profit
for this amount is Rs. 631.3 cores. Total number of vehicles
sold is 94,106.

Here, we assume all the sold vehicles as trucks for the
simple calculation.

ONE VEHICLE COST:

94106 VEHICLES = Rs. 11,117.7 CORES

ONE VEHICLE = Rs. 0.118 CORES.


ONE VEHICLE PROFIT:

FOR 94106 VEHICLES = Rs. 631.3 CORES
PROFIT

FOR ONE VEHICLE = Rs. 0.00670 CORES
PROFIT
For our calculation, we consider
Minimum cost of one truck Rs. 20 LAKHS
Profit for this truck is Rs.1, 20,000. (APPROX)
From this profit of one vehicle, company can spent only
half the amount to the alteration in the truck, so the
company can get more and more number of customers
and the annual turnover is doubled. Finally the company
can able to sell more vehicles because of user friendly
and the profit of one truck is also increased.



REFERENCE:

International Journal of Advanced Technology & Engineering Research (IJATER)

ISSN No: 2250-3536 Volume 2, Issue 6, Nov. 2012 114
[1] Aluminium cost: www.onlinemetals.com

[2] Plastic box cost www.sustainabletransportpackaging.com

[3] Aluminium details: www.aviationmetals.net

[4] Aluminium 5052-h32 details: www.precisionsheet.com

[5] Drawing: AutoCAD 2008

[6] Tomato characteristics
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/tree_tomato.html

[7] Basic properties of Aluminium
http://www.aluminiumdesign.net/why-aluminium/properties-
of-aluminium/

[8] Lorry dimension in trucks
http://www.prlindia.com/services.htm

[9] Truck manufactures details
http://www.ashokleyland.com/

BIOGRAPHIES:

RAJESH KUMAR.R currently pursuing Bachelor degree in
Mechatronics Engineering in Kongu Engineering College,
Erode, Tamilnadu, India. Contact id is
mail2rajesh70@gmail.com

BALAJI K.V currently pursuing Bachelor degree in
Mechanical Engineering in Vidyaa Vikas College Engineering
and Technology , Namakkal, Tamilnadu, India. Contact id is
balaji92mech@gmail.com


MOHAMMED JUBAIR M.F currently pursuing Bachelor
degree in Mechanical Engineering in K.S.Rangasamy College
Engineering and Technology, Namakkal, Tamilnadu, India.
Contact id is jub1993@gmail.com