Design concepts featured a) a sizing parameters which were determined by the diameter of
the fruit and b) a sizing mechanism which causes minimum damage. The sizing machine
comprised a feeding unit and a diverging belt sizing unit that are powered by two 187 W
220 V 50 Hz electric motors, gear reducer and pulleys. Performance tests indicated that
velocity and inclination angle of the sizing belt; feeding belt velocity and the fruit orientation
significantly affects the sizing performance at p < 0.05. The optimum conditions for
continuous mechanical sizing depended on the variety. The optimum sizing performance
was characterised by a contamination or error ratio of 10.8e16.5%, and a throughput
capacity of 149.7e195.1 kg h1 with no significantly noticeable damage to the sized fruits.
Manual sizing of the exported java apple featured an error ratio of 27.9%, a damage
percentage of 13.3%, and a capacity of 107.2 kg h1. Therefore, the java apple sizing
machine can be operated without adding more mechanical damages to the sized fruit.