DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF TENDER JACKFRUIT PEELER

Abstract

Tender jackfruit is the immature jackfruit which is harvested before the fruit has reached maturity. At present demand for tender jackfruit is increasing day by day. The growers, entrepreneurs and volunteers may focus more on tender jackfruit value added products. But the traditional manual method of peeling is done by using a knife, which is a time consuming process and causes drudgery. The fruit is widely under- utilized due to the large peeling losses and intensive labour when it comes to the peeling operations. Thus effective mechanization for this process is a need of the hour. The present study aims at development and evaluation of a tender jackfruit peeling machine. The principle operation of the machine is, as the tender jackfruit rotates peeling is done helically due to the linear motion of the blade from top to bottom. Performance evaluation of the machine was conducted in the college workshop with three sizes of tender jackfruit viz. small, medium, large fruit. Rotational speed of the tender jackfruit holder was fixed at 100 rpm. The peeling action took less time (128.4 s) in small size jackfruits compared to medium as well as large sized fruits. The time of peeling was maximum (138 s) in case of large size tender jackfruit. The peeling efficiency was highest (93.1%) in large size fruits whereas, lowest (86.5%) in case of small size fruits. The highest material loss (9.7%) was observed in large size fruits whereas, lowest(9.34%) was found in small size fruit. A comparative study of manual method of peeling with the developed tender jackfruit peeler was carried out. The average time taken for peeling using manual operation and mechanical operation was found to be 5.20min/fruit and 2.30 min/fruit, respectively. The cost of the machine was estimated as Rs. 35,000/-. The operational cost of the machine was measured as Rs.150.86 /day. The benefit-cost ratio of the developed machine was 2.31:1. The developed machine aids in faster peeling of tender jackfruit with least drudgery besides more efficient and hence it could be recommended to use in small and medium scale jackfruit processing industry.