Development and Performance Evaluation of Carrot Washer
Development and Performance Evaluation of Carrot Washer
Development and Performance Evaluation of Carrot Washer
Carrot washer is a machine which could find its use in agricultural fields. The root crops like carrot after harvesting have to be
cleaned-off soil particles before their transportation from field to market in order to enhance market value. The washing of
carrots is mainly carried out manually with the help of brooms and feet by using un-cleaned water of nearby source. Manual
cleaning requires labor and it is time consuming due to sticky mud on the surface of carrot. Carrot washer is a machine which
is very useful for cleaning purpose with a cleaning efficiency of 98%. It can also be used for the washing of other crops like
potatoes; radish etc., after their harvesting and then these crops can be transported to the market. This is a low cost machine
and every farmer in Pakistan can afford it. The objective of this paper is to discuss the design and details of this carrot washer.
The machine has a wooden drum with a continuous pressurized water supply. Muddy carrots after harvesting are placed inside
the drum through opening provided at the face of drum. The wooden drum rotates and rubs off foreign material from carrot
surface; pressurized water is used to wash away the soil. The wastewater after washing falls down from the drum through slots
provided at the circumference of drum. Hence carrot washer cleans the carrots and other root crops and makes them ready for
marketing.
Keywords: Manual Cleaning; Carrots; Carrot Washer; Wooden Drum
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Carrot Washer
floating produce after cleaning (Kitinoja and Kader, 2002). Specifications: The detailed specifications of the carrot
Fig 4 shows water supply unit and washing brushes with their washer are given in Table 1 and specification of the pump
exact position and spray angle inside the washing drum. The used in carrot washer is given in Table 2.
bruise index increased with increase in operating speed for Cleaning and Washing Efficiency: Cleaning efficiency is the
washing root crops (Jayashree and Viswanathan, 2010). ratio of quantity of carrots washed effectively to the quantity
Vegetable washing by means of a spray washer is most of carrots supplied to the carrot washer for washing. It can
effective method. Antony, (1987) concluded that those also be determined by using following formula.
products that are heavily contaminated with soil should be Cleaning Efficiency =
thoroughly soaked in order to lose the soil and then pass it Quantity of carrots washed
under sprays. In the case of plastic matting, washing X 100
Total quantity of carrots in drum for washing
efficiency was more for carrot and radish at 3.5 mm thickness Washing efficiency is the ratio of the weight of carrots before
compared to 1.5 mm thickness for the same produce. Fig 4 washing to the weight of carrots after washing and it can be
shows water supply unit and spray angle inside the drum. calculated by the following formula.
Washing Efficiency =
Weight of carrots before washing
X 100
Weight of carrots after washing
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Siddique, Aleem, Hussain & Raza
efficiency at same slope in washing drums of different length. of this machine is about Rs. 2800 per acre. Manual washing
Firstly, when the drum D1 was used its cleaning capacity was also takes a lot of time but washing with carrot washer save
more at slope 2.25 % as shown in table 3 but cleaning time when we compare with manual washing. In conventional
efficiency was more at slope but cleaning efficiency was less, washing 80 hours are required per acre per person for washing
so D1 replaced with D2 but D2 also gave the same results as of carrots. While the same work can be performing in 15
D1. Now we introduced cleaning brushes in D2 and named it hours. In short, it can save about 65 hours per acre and also it
as D3. On testing D3 at different slopes the results were is easy to operate and ensures safe handling of carrots.
excellent. At 0.75% slope the cleaning efficiency was Besides of carrots it can also be used for the washing of other
maximum but cleaning capacity was less and at 2.25 % slope root crops.
the cleaning capacity was maximum but cleaning efficiency
was minimum. In this study our main concern was on cleaning REFERENCES
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