Agricultural Engineering Today

A mechanical peeler was developed for peeling and washing the white pepper after removing the outer skin or pericarp of ripe pepper berries (Piper nigrum). The unit consists of a blade and brush assembly operated by one hp electric motor. Water for washing was supplied by a 0.5 hp mono block pump and it is recirculated. The unit was evaluated for its performance in a plantation by varying peripheral speed of the blade (141, 189, 236 and 283 m/min), clearance between the blade and outer perforated cylinder (4, 6, 8 and 10 mm) and different pre treatments (retted, blanched and untreated). Panniyur1 variety was used for evaluation. Maximum peeling efficiency of 94.6 per cent was obtained for untreated pepper at 4 mm clearance and 189 m/min peripheral speed. Minimum brokens of 3.8 per cent were obtained at 10 mm clearance and 141 m/min peripheral speed for untreated ripe pepper. This unit replaces the traditional method of manual trampling of pepper berries to remove the skin.