1Research Engineer, AICRP on Post Harvest Technology, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh-362001, Gujarat, email: ndabhi@jau.in
2Vice Chancellor, Anand Agricultural University, Anand-388110, Gujarat
Online published on 23 September, 2016.
Onion is an important vegetable crop, grown almost all over India. It is seasonal in production, but the demand is round the year. Grading is important for good market price. Generally onion bulbs are graded manually on size basis. One person can grade 1500 kg of onion bulb in one day in three different grades. In order to increase the output of onion bulb grading and save time and labour, a power driven onion grader based on divergent-type principle was designed and developed. The best combination of roller speed and roller inclination was found to be 13 rpm and 8o, respectively, for efficiency of 79.95% at capacity of 598.58 kg.h−1. The machine cost of grader was Rs. 40680/-(without electric motor).
Onion bulb, onion grading performance, efficiency
