PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF FRESH RED PEPPER

Geometrical characteristics of fresh red pepper(Capsicum annuum L.) were measured and indexed to define some important geometrical characteristics, and malformation of body and fruit stalk which are necessary for the design of the equipments for cutting, spreading and alignment of red pepper in developing a fruit stalk remover of fresh red pepper. The effects of bending of body and fruit stalk on the equipments of cutting, spreading and alignment were studied. The maximum lengths of some parts of fresh red pepper were found to be 180 mm, 125 mm, 144 mm, 67 mm and 76 mm for the body, the bent part of body, the fruit stalk, the bent part and the straight part of fruit stalk, respectively. The fresh red pepper with bending indices more than 0.4 and 0.3 for the body and the fruit stalk, respectively, was defined to be malformed based on the result of cutting rate using cutting unit; while the other ones to be normal in shape. Based on this, among the total fresh red peppers tested, 47%, 40% and 20% were found malformed for the body, the fruit stalk, and for both of the body and the fruit stalk. Malformed red peppers were poorer in spreading and alignment than normal ones, and the processed quantity was decreased with increased feed rate. The required time for the malformed peppers to pass on the alignment plate inclined at 30 increased rapidly at 8.3 Hz with increased feed rate. For the fresh red peppers with average moisture content of 85%,w.b., the maximum tensile strength between fruit stalk and body was 88.1 N; the maximum cutting resistances were 92.1 N and 94.9 N for the fruit stalk-calyx joint and body, respectively. Average coefficients of static friction were 0.99, 0.62, 0.59 and OJ, respectively, for the surfaces of rubber, galvanized iron, acryl and plywood.