International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056

Volume: 07 Issue: 03 | Mar 2020 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

Development of Fruit and Vegetable Slicing Machine

Mr. Krantidip R. Pawar1, Mr. Pravin D. Ukey2, Mr. Pritam D. Bhosale3, Mr. Kaustubh B.
Ghorpade4, Mr. Rushikesh B. Jadhav5, Mr. Aniket A. Patil6
1,2Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Process Engineering, Dr. D. Y. Patil College of Agricultural
Engineering and Technology, Talsande, Maharashtra, India.
3,4,5,6 Students, Department of Agricultural Process Engineering, Dr. D. Y. Patil College of Agricultural Engineering

and Technology, Talsande, Maharashtra, India.

---------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract – Slicing of fruits or vegetables is the important unit almost all processed root and tuber crop products depends
operation in Agro processing industry. Slicing is kind of size slicing. Crops are often sliced before cooking and steaming,
reduction which helps in the extraction of desirable either for direct consumption or as one step in a processing
constituents from raw materials. Slicing is most suitable for system[10]. The process of cutting or slicing the crops gives
making of chips (wafers), crushing fruits for juice or for rise to faster processing. Crops are commonly sliced and
fermentation. Manual slicing is relatively slow operation, prepared by frying in hot oil or roasting. This practice of
unhygienic, low quality and needs special attention, so the roasting food items without slicing the product takes longer
fruit and vegetable slicing machine was developed by time than when they are sliced. Slicing as unit operations
considering physical properties of selected fruits and helps in preparation of the raw material for further
vegetable. For development of slicing machine & its processing like cleaning, trimming, peeling followed by
performance potato and banana were selected. cooking, canning or freezing. Processing (canning, drying,
freezing, and preparation of juices, jams, and jellies)
The physical properties of Banana and Potato such as increases the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.
size, sphericity, angle of repose (G.I sheet surface), angle of
repose(wooden surface), bulk density, true density and Slicing is a form of size reduction and the general term
porosity were calculated. The slicer machine conceptually “size reduction” includes slicing, cutting, crushing, chopping,
designed and developed by considering physical properties of grinding and milling. The slicing is brought about by
fruit & vegetables. The slicer machine works on cutting mechanical means without change in chemical properties of
mechanism for size reduction. The machine consists of four the material and uniformity in size and shape of individual
units viz. Feeding unit, Slicing unit, Collection unit and Power units of the end product. Such processes as slicing of fruits or
transmission unit. vegetables for canning, slicing sweet potatoes for drying,
onion slicing for salad, slicing corn fodder, grinding grain for
Developed slicer machine performance has evaluated livestock feed and milling flour are size reduction operations.
for slicing Potato & Banana in terms of slicing capacity, Reducing the size of food raw materials is an important
broken percentage and uniform slicing. The average slicing operation to achieve a definite size range [3]. Slicing may
capacity for banana & potato was about 68.78 kg/hr and 91.8 help in the extraction of desirable constituents from raw
kg/hr respectively. Sliced product by slicing machine is far materials easily due to its reduction in size e.g. for making of
better than manual slicing in terms of quality & quantity. chips (wafers), crushing fruits for juice or for fermentation.
Slicing operation is achieved by cutting, which involves
Key Words: Fruit, Vegetables, Slicing machine, Slicing moving, pushing or forcing thin sharp blade or knife through
Capacity, Broken Percentage, Uniformity etc. the materials resulting in minimum rupture and deformation
of the materials [7].
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Justification
India's diverse climate ensures availability of all
varieties of fresh fruits & vegetables. It ranks second in fruits The purpose of slicing fruits or vegetables is to aid
and vegetables production in the world, after China. In India in standardization and to facilitate processing. The slices
only 3% work force had find employment in agro processing produced by traditional methods are not uniform and this
sector. may result in non-uniform drying or infected dried slices.
With technological advancement, there is progressive
Fruit and vegetable processing main objectives is to
increase in awareness of the importance of using mechanical
supply safe, nutritious and acceptable food to consumers
devices to slice agricultural produce. Due to high demand for
throughout the year. Generally, the size of food materials is
root and tuber crops for various domestic uses, it became
often reduced during processing for many unit operations
imperative that slicing machine to slice these crops be
which are drying, boiling or steaming and frying or roasting.
developed. Traditional methods slicing is time consuming,
Slicing of crops before drying reduces the drying time by
tedious and unhygienic for processing.
exposing more surface area to the air. The preservation of

© 2020, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.34 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1399
 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 07 Issue: 03 | Mar 2020 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

To overcome this problem, many fruit or vegetable slicer 3. Material & Methods
machines are designed and developed. For operating these
machines requires less human power with less time. At 3.1 Fruits & Vegetable:
present most existing slicing system have the disadvantage
of low efficiency, high cost and complexity. The small scale India is second largest in production of potatoes,
processor is not strong to afford all the high class machinery. onions, etc. Amongst fruits, the country ranks first in
Slicing machine available in market is not economically production of Bananas. Slices are generally used for chips or
afforded for the small enterprises. It is significant to develop wafers making. Potato and Banana chips have great market
time efficient and low cost fruit and vegetable slicing demand as compare to other. Hence Banana and Potato is
machine for all kind of fruit & vegetables. The main aim of selected for development of slicing machine & its
this project is to develop a compact, safe and easy use fruit performance evaluation. Most used variety for chips making
and vegetable slicing for small scale enterprises. The phase for Banana are Dwarf Cavendish, Basrai, Robusta, Lal Velchi,
of the new slicing machine start with the research of existing Safed Velchi, Rajeli Nendran, Grand Naine, Shreemanti, Red
slicer to understand the functioning, reliability, durability, Banana.Most used varieties of Potato chips are sindhuri,
and mechanism. chandramukhi, Kufri sindhuri M Kufri Chipsona, Kufri
Chandramukhi, Kufri Lauvkar.
1.2 Objectives

To develop fruit and vegetables slicing machine.

To evaluate the performance of developed slicing machine.

2. Literature Review

Clarke (1987)[1] reported that Several slicing and

chipping machines have been designed and tested in various
developing countries especially the Caribbean and South
East Asian countries.
Fig -1: Sample for determination of Engineering Properties
Philippines has designed a simple slicer which is said to
3.2 Physical Properties:
cut sweet potatoes much faster than manual methods. The
sweet potato is held on the cutting platform against a plate, Determination of some Physical properties of fruit &
which controls the thickness of slice. Slices are then cut off vegetables are important for development of any kind of
with the hinged cutting blade [8]. handling equipment (Mohsenin, N.N. 1986) [ 5].
Raji and Igbeka (1994)[7] designed, fabricated and Size: Size is the measurement of dimensions or the
tested a pedal-operated chipping and slicing machine for dimensional characteristic of the material. Size is measured
tubers and it was reported that the machine performed by using Vernier Calipers, having least count is 0.01cm.
satisfactorily with production of slices of uniform thickness
ranging from 1 mm to 13 mm thickness and a throughput of
about 376 kg/h at an efficiency of about 83 percent. Size = (a*b*c)1/3

Ukatu and Aboaba (1996)[9] designed, constructed and Where,

evaluated a machine for slicing yam and it was reported that
a, b and c are the project area in three
the machine’s thickness of cut can be varied from 2 mm to 20
mutually perpendicular directions.
mm and the slicing efficiency ranged from 82 to 93 percent
and the rate of work is 45 cuts per minute. Sphericity: It is the cube root of volume of solid and the
volume of circumscribed sphere.
There are also several manually operated kitchen–
size chipping and slicing machines in the market. Some of
these chipping and slicing machines are either imported or Sphericity = (𝒂∗𝒃∗𝒄)𝟏/𝟑/a
fabricated locally. Furthermore, some of these slicing
Where,
machines are designed for only a particular type of vegetable
and fruit and cannot be used for others because of their a = Largest intercept,
peculiar rheological properties.
c = Largest intercept perpendicular to a and b
Olajide et al. (1997)[6] evaluated an okra slicer and
found out that there are higher losses in the manual knife Angle of Repose: Angle of repose is the angle between the
slicing of okra than in the okra slicer. base and the slope of cone formed on a free vertical fall of

© 2020, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.34 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1400
 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 07 Issue: 03 | Mar 2020 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

the granular material to the horizontal plane. It is measured machine should be safe to operate.
with the help of angle of repose apparatus.
3. 4. Working Principle of Slicing Machine
Bulk Density : It is ratio of weight in air of fruit or vegetable
divided by volume of bulk fruit or vegetable. It is density of Machine works on low energy, portable and easy to
fruits and vegetables when stacked or packed in bulk. It is operate by all kind of operators. Different fruit or vegetable
calculated by using following equation. have different size and shape. Machine able to slice all kind of
fruits & vegetable having different size. The slicing machine
Bulk Density=Wb/V, works on the principle of simple cutting and slicing
mechanisms.
Where,
As initial moment of inertia is overcome by manual
Wb- Bulk Weight of fruit/vegetable, kg feeding and hopper inclination. Machine consists of feeding
unit, slicing unit, collection unit and power transmission unit.
V-Bulk Volume of fruit/vegetable, m3 Fruit or vegetables are fed through the feeding unit.
Fruit/vegetable once come in contact with slicing disc, they
True Density: True density was measured by the water get sliced due to sharp blade. Thickness of slice adjusted by
displacement method. The weight of numbers of individual using the clearance and inclination of blade over disc. Slicing
sample was measured in an electronic balance and was capacity can be controlled by rotation of shaft and feeding
dropped into the water in 100 ml measuring cylinder. rate. Sliced pieces pass through clearance of blade and falls on
inclined collecting pan. By application or without application
True Density = Wi/Vi,
of water the sliced pieces slide over collecting pan and moved
Where, towards outlet of slicer machine. Uniform rotation of shaft
will be operated through 1/12 Hp motor.
Wi - Weight of individual fruit/vegetable, kg
3. 5Performance evaluation:
Vi - Volume of individual fruit/vegetable, m3
Performance of machine is calculated in terms of
Porosity: Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void slicing capacity of machine with application of water, Broken
(i.e. “empty") spaces in a material. percentage, Uniform slicing percentage.

Porosity (%) = (T. D.- B. D.)/T. D. * 100 1. Slicing Capacity of machine:

Where, Machine capacity is calculated by total amount of mass sliced
per unit time.
T.D. – True Density, kg/ m3
Slicing capacity (kg/hr) =
B.D. - Bulk Density, kg/ m3
Weight of sliced material/ Time required
3.3 Primary Considerations for development of Slicing
Machine: 2. Broken Percentage:
1. Quality: Due to unavailability of the proper tools the It deals with number of damaged or broken slices with
vegetables are not sliced uniformly leading to poor quality. respect to total number of sliced pieces.
The present design overcomes this design deficiency.
Damage percentage (%) =
2. Productivity: This new fruit and vegetable slicer is
capable of producing more number of slices in a single (Damaged Pieces/ Total sliced pieces)* 100
stroke. This cutting area can accommodate wide range of
4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
vegetables of different sizes.
4.1 Some physical Properties of Banana & Potato
3. Cost Effectiveness: Slicing of fruits and vegetable should
be cost effective than other slicing machines/methods. The physical properties related to slicing machine
development such as size, sphericity, angle of repose, weight,
4. Ergonomics: Ergonomics was given due consideration bulk density and true density, porosity of banana & potato
while designing the product. The fatigue on the operator can were measured and tabulated as shown in Table -1 and
be reduced by increasing the productivity. Table- 2.
5. Safety: The chance of injuring the finger is high in the
conventional chip manufacturing methods. Developed
© 2020, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.34 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1401
 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 07 Issue: 03 | Mar 2020 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

Table -1: Some Physical Properties of Banana All machine components are shown in Fig-2 & Fig-3.

Some Physical
Average Min. Max. SD, б
Properties
Effective length, a,
121.85 110 129 5.94
cm
Effective width, b,
30 28.2 33 1.58
cm
Effective height, c,
33.7 32.2 34.8 0.846
cm
Size, cm 5.02 4.73 5.2 0.1512
Sphericity 0.41 0.39 0.43 0.012
Angle of repose
13.2 10 16 1.77
(G.I.Surface) ,Ф o
Angle of repose
(Wooden surface), 21.1 22 27 1.374
Фo
Bulk Density,
514.27 504.7 522.14 6.153
kg/m3
True Density, 958.3
1004.9 1053.77 29.114
kg/m3 2
Fig -2: Developed Slicing Machine with its Parts
Porosity, % 48.3 45 51 1.7

Table -2: Some Physical Properties of Potato

Some Physical Average Min. Max. SD, б

Properties
Effective length, a 80.2 52.8 96.9 12.01
Effective width, b 49.76 45.8 57.8 3.54
Effective height, c 61.62 48.7 68.6 6.30
Size, cm 6.24 4.91 6.86 0.542
Sphericity 0.79 0.67 0.93 0.076
Angle of repose 8.8 7 11 1.24
(G.I.Surface),Ф o
Angle of repose 12.2 10 16 1.72
(Wooden surface),
Фo
Bulk Density, 813.5 649.72 904.85 75.83
kg/m3
True Density, 1039.5 987.75 1156.66 45.79
kg/m3
Fig -3: Developed Slicing Machine
Porosity, % 21.5 10.03 39.18 8.94
4.3 Performance evaluation of developed slicing
machine:
4.2 Developed slicing Machine:
The performance of machine has been evaluated in
With consideration of physical properties of Banana and
terms of Slicing capacity, Uniform slicing percentage and
Potato and design parameter, slicing machine has been
Broken percentage for banana and potato. The performance
developed. Based on working function, Slicing machine parts
of machine is tabulated Table-3 and Table-4 for banana and
are divided into four major units viz.
potato respectively.
1. Feeding Unit,
Average slicing capacity of machine for banana and
2. Slicing Unit, potato was found 68.78 kg/hr and 95.66kg/hr respectively.
Banana peel texture is very hard and sticky so slicing
3. Collection Unit and capacity is less as compare to potato. Slicing capacity of
machine will vary with kinds of produce, as different
4. Power transmission unit. produce have different physical and chemical properties. e.g.
raw banana peel have less stickiness than ripe banana pulp.
© 2020, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.34 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1402
 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 07 Issue: 03 | Mar 2020 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

Average uniform slicing percentage for banana and

potato was 72.05 % and 66.22% respectively. More uniform
slicing is achieved in banana than potato is due to round
diameter of banana than potato. It also depends upon the
uniform feeding rate and operator skill for feeding.

Average broken (damaged) percentage for banana and

potato was found as 27.95 % and 33.78 % respectively.

Table-3: Performance evaluation of slicing machine for Banana.

Obs. Weight of Time for Weight of Uniform Weight of Broken Total

No. fed slicing, uniform slicing Broken percentage slicing
Banana, (g) (sec) pieces, (g) percentage Pieces (g) (%) capacity
(%) (kg/h)
1 245 11 190 77.55 55 22.45 80.18
2 252 12 188 74.60 64 25.40 75.60
3 241 14 170 70.54 71 29.46 61.97
4 255 16 167 65.49 88 34.51 57.38
Average 72.05 27.95 68.78

Table-4: Performance evaluation of slicing machine for Potato

Obs. No. Weight of Time for Weight of Uniform Weight of Broken Total slicing
fed slicing uniform slicing Broken percentage, capacity (kg/h)
Potato (sec) pieces (g) percentage Pieces, (%)
(g) (%) (g)
1 235 8 170 72.34 65 27.66 105.75
2 244 9 162 66.39 82 33.61 97.6
3 243 10 155 63.79 88 36.21 87.48
4 255 10 159 62.35 96 37.65 91.8
Average 66.22 33.78 95.66

4.4 Comparison of slicing by traditional method and by 5. CONCLUSION

slicing machine:
With the help of engineering properties of banana &
The slicing capacity of slicing machine for Potato Potato the Slicing machine has been developed. Machine can
varies from 87.48 to 105.75 kg/hr whereas by traditional slice all kind of fruits/vegetable. The manufacturing cost of
method slicing capacity varies from 4.67 to 5.32 kg/hr. Thus, slicing machine was calculated for the developed slicer and it
this concludes that the slicing machine is more relevant and was Rs. 7000/-.This developed machine is beneficial to all
efficient than traditional method of slicing. Also, Slicing small entrepreneur, food handlers, food manufacturer where
machine maintain the hygiene and quality of sliced pieces slicing and cutting operation are involved. Further
than traditional slicing method. modification of the machine is necessary to improve the
performance of the machine.
Capacity(kg/h)
Observatio REFERENCES
n No. Traditional
Slicing machine
method slicing [1] Clarke, B. (1987). Post-harvest Crop Processing. Some
1 105.75 5.32 Tools for Agricultur, Intermediate Technology
2 97.6 4.70 Publication: pp 60-64
3 87.48 4.67
4 91.8 4.85
Avg. 95.66 4.88

© 2020, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.34 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1403
 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 07 Issue: 03 | Mar 2020 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

[2] Hall, A. S.,Holownko, A. R., and Langhlin, H. G. 1988.

Theory and Problems of Machine Design. S. I. (metric)
edition. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Singapore. pp 255 –
276.

[3] Henderson, S. M. and Perry, R. L. (1980). Agricultural

Processing Engineering. Third edition.

Macmillan Publishing Company, New York. pp. 185.

[4] Kachru, R. P.,Balasubramania, D. and Nachiket, K. C. 1996.

Design, Development and Evaluation of Rotary Slicer for
Raw Banana Chips. Agricultural Mechanisation in
Africa,Asia and Latin America, 27(4): 61 – 64.

[5] Mohsenin, N.N. (1986). Physical properties of plant and

animal materials. Gordon of Breach science publishers,
Neaw York.

[6] Olajide, T. D., Olowonibi, M. M. and Onwualu, P. (1997).

Testing and Evaluation of Manually Operated Okro Slicer.

[7] Raji, O. A. and Igbeka, J. C. 1994. Pedal Operated Chipping

and Slicing Machine for Tuber. Journal of Agricultural
Engineering Technology,2: 90 – 99.

[8] Teel, D. E. 1977. Development of a Belt Cutting System.

Paper Presented at the International Grain and Forage
Harvesting Conference Iowa State University, Ames, I.A.

[9] Ukatu, A. C. and Aboaba, F. O. 1996. A Machine for Slicing

Yam Tubers. Journal of Agricultural Engineering and
Technology, 4: 58 – 64.

[10]United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM,

1993). Food Cycle Technology, Source Book: Root Crop
Processing. Intermediate Technology Publications
Limited, Southampton, Row, London.

BIOGRAPHIES

Er. Pawar K.R.

Currently working as Assistant

Professor, Dr. D.Y. Patil College of
Agricultural Engineering &
Technology, Talsande. He has
qualified NET, GATE, ICAR-JRF exams
in disciple of Agricultural Engineering

© 2020, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.34 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1404