Due to seasonal variations fruit crops are kept in storage for extended periods of time, before
distribution for sale in different countries In such a situation easily and reliably measure the quality of the fruits Where fruit is not
being moved to storage, it is also beneficial to be able to measure
these properties in situ before or at the time of harvesting measured destructively using penetration tests or parallel plate compression and hydration Such methods are unable to detect fluctuations in
fruit quality within a single batch Hence, an automatic
and non-destructive method for quantitatively determining fruit
quality would be of great economic benefit to the agriculture
Methods which
have been successful in performing ultrasonic measurements on
fruit have been generally limited to using cumbersome lab-based
devices
In these experiments, two fine-tipped ultrasonic
transducers were angled towards each other, close together (5–
18 mm) on the surface of the sample, and the attenuation and
velocity of propagation were measured between them
The disadvantage of two-transducer ultrasonic methods is that
the transducers must be properly aligned, making such methods
difficult apply automatically or in a non-laboratory environment.
Single transducer pulse-echo techniques of fruit and vegetable
internals prove impossible as attenuation is twofold due to the
extra distance which must be travelled
This paper presents a novel, single-transducer method for
determining fruit quality, which can easily be applied automatically
or in the field.