Cushioning materials for harvesting and handling fruits and vegetables /

Abstract

Handling operations make up most of the steps in harvesting, grading, and packing of fruit crops. These operations may result in mechanical injury to fruit caused by impact from falls, change in the moving direction of fruits and vegetables on conveyor belts, and contact between fruit and container during transportation.The use of cushioning material is important where mechanical tree shakers are used and fruit may fall as much as 15 to 18 feet.Equipment designers, packing house managers, and others select cushioning materials that are readily available. Tests of cushioning materials subjected to a freefalling object have not been available.Cushioning material used to cover 'fruit-catching frames should have two important requirements: (a) It should absorb enough impact force to prevent the bruising of fruit, and (b) retain its cushioning ability long enough to justify the expense because rapid deterioration of the cushioning material through weathering can quickly make the material useless. Some 150 samples of cushioning materials were obtained from 17 manufacturers for testing.The energy absorption, weathering characteristics, and costs were determined for 92 materials. Tests were not conducted on 58 samples because the materials were too rigid, lacked resilience, or otherwise were not suitable.