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Proper Design and Evaluation of Equipment for Extracting Watermelon Seeds
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Abstract: An equipment for seed extraction from watermelon seed was designed, locally manufactured, and evaluated. It performed many functional processes namely: watermelon fruit crushing, seed separation from other fruit material (flesh and skin), skin releasing, and seed cleaning. Numerous theoretical relationships necessary to correlate the design parameters of the equipment operating mechanisms, with the physical and mechanical properties of watermelon fruits and seeds were analyzed and utilized as the database for design concepts.
The performance of the fabricated equipment has been tested and evaluated versus different design and operating parameters, and also economically compared to the manual extraction method of watermelon seeds.
The results indicated that the proper performance of the fabricated equipment has been achieved at crushing drum speed of 4.7 m/s, clearance concave of 24 mm and cleaning brushes number of 8 that rotating at peripheral speed of 4.7 m/s. Whereas, at these operating conditions maximum equipment productivity values of 217.4 kg/h, cleaning efficiency of 84.7%, minimum visible seed damage values of 0.398%, and minimum seed losses values of 3.83% have been recorded.
The average unit power required for accomplishing all processes of the fabricated equipment may be amounted as 10.75 kW. While, the average net profit due to replacing the fabricated equipment instead of the manual extraction method of watermelon seeds may be amounted as 2992 L.E/fed
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| Publication year |
2006
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| Pages |
53-68
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| Availability location |
معهد بحوث الهندسة الزراعية - شارع نادى الصيد - الدقى - جيزة
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| Availability number |
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| Organization Name |
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| serial title |
J. Agric Sci. Mansoura Univ
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| External authors (outside ARC) |
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| Agris Categories |
Agricultural machinery and equipment
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AGROVOC
TERMS |
Equipment.
Watermelons.
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| Proposed Agrovoc |
EXTRACTING;
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| Publication Type |
Journal
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