Development and evaluation of an apple infield grading and sorting system

Infield pre-sorting is intended to remove processing-grade (inferior) fruit that are not suitable for the fresh market, so growers can handle sorted apples differentially in postharvest storage and packing achieve cost savings. To this goal, we developed an apple infield grading sorting system, which singulation, rotation, transportation achieved by using simple, compact pitch-variable screw conveyors, (for size color) accomplished with a low-cost imaging done paddle sorters. Experiments were conducted ‘Red Delicious’ ‘Golden evaluate overall performance of system terms repeatability (i.e., chances each would be graded into same quality grade multiple runs different lanes), bruising damage, accuracy (consistency between imaging-based results destinations). Results showed rates above 90 % 81 intra- inter-lane grading, respectively. The 99 throughputs 7.5, 9.0, 10.5 s−1, while 100 Extra Fancy 55 or higher incurred no damage during process. robust performance, it meet commercial needs.