Master manufactures lemon peeling machine

In 2016, Master Chanh and the Can Tho University delegation explored the need for technology application and innovation in Hau Giang. He noticed that some households peel lemons manually, or with semi-automatic machines, the productivity is not high.

On the market at that time, there were many automatic lemon peeling machines, but most of them needed to be placed one by one into the peeling area or material feeding area, wasting effort and time for workers. , automation is not high. From this reality, Master Chanh set the goal of manufacturing a fully automatic lemon peeling machine. The manager only needs to put multiple lemons into the feeding area at once, then the system automatically locates each lemon and brings it to the peeling knife.

After more than 1 year of research, the author successfully created an automatic lemon peeling machine with a structure consisting of 5 main parts: roughing part, orientation, pinning, rotation and peeling knife. When starting the machine, the lemon is put into the material storage area and falls into the hopper with a transport shaft. Each lemon is brought to the position of the rotating centrifugal roller mechanism. Next, the pin head will hold and rotate 90 degrees so that the lemon is upright. Now the opposite end of the pin lowers down, holds the other end of the lemon and rotates. At that time, the peeling knife moves to the position where the lemon is rotating and peels from the bottom up in a circular arc to the entire surface of the lemon. Once completed, the needles stop rotating and the peeling knife stops, ending the peeling process, repeating the cycle with the next fruit.

Test results show that the machine achieves an average peeling efficiency of 85% of the lemon peel surface, with a productivity of 240 fruits per hour, equivalent to 24 kg of peels. According to Master Chanh, the cleanliness of the peel depends on the depth of peeling and the degree of fiber cutting (width of the peel after cutting) from the fruit. The author evaluates an average cutting depth of 1.86 mm and an average fiber cutting depth of 3.1 mm as the most optimal.

The product he researched is currently in its early version, so productivity is still low and shell cleanliness is not yet absolute. Currently, the machine can peel lemons of medium size or larger.

The author said that in the coming time, structures will be improved that can accommodate all sizes of lemons, helping to maximize the peeling capacity of existing lemons. The machine will be designed to contain the peel and fruit after peeling. He also plans to develop a pineapple peeling machine based on the lemon peeling machine mechanism.

Mr. Hung Tran, a machine design and manufacturing expert, assessed that although the product is not new, it is applicable to mechanization in processing agricultural products, liberating labor. However, he believes that the machine is in model form and has low productivity. In addition, the fruit positioning mechanism and the needle tip that fixes the lemon operate with high errors. He believes that the tip of the needle that fixes the lemon must be sturdy so that when rotating at high speed, it does not affect the peeling process and the fruit does not fly out. “The author needs to optimize the mechanical processing of the machine by designing parts that are sturdy, durable and operate accurately. This helps the machine work continuously without errors, achieving high shell cleanliness.” , he said.