Development of Simple Density Measurement System for Watermelons

Density is a physical property which contains information relating to the internal quality of fruits and vegetables, and can be used as an index for nondestructive quality evaluation. Density sorting has been employed by farmers for some agricultural products since ancient times. In this study, an automatic density measuring system based on the platform scale or water displacement method was developed for density sorting of watermelon. It consisted of water tan, load cell, net tray, electric motor, limit switch, control system and its program. The resolution of density was 0.001 g/㎤. In order to calibrate and evaluate the accuracy, the density was measured using a balloon kept in cold water. It showed 1.002 g/㎤ which almost correspond to real density of water. Test results with 6 watermelons and 3 replications showed that the standard deviations of the dens were 0.001∼0.004 g/㎤. The relationship between density and internal quality of watermelon was investigated using the system. The densities of hollow watermelons were less than 0.950 g/㎤, it was apparent that the density of the watermelon was related to the degree of hollowness. But the soluble solid contents and internal defects could not be estimated from the density.

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