Philippine E-Journals

Design and Fabrication of Manually Operated and Solar Powered Harvesting Machine for Santol Fruits

Ervin James E. Esteron | Gregorio A. Domingo III | John Kevin M. Barrameda

 

Abstract:

To pick the fruits from a tree, local folks use an improvised tool, which is made of a thin but long bamboo pole with a sharp knife at a higher end and a net bag or a small sack put right next to it to catch the fruit once cut from its stem. Sometimes, the bag is not available, so the fruits directly fall off the tree to the ground. This project aimed to harvest santol fruits easily and quickly using the pneumatics principle. To design the tool, the researchers considered solar-powered air compressor. The air pressure will flow through a pipe, and the pipe will be placed where the fruit is. The fruit will be picked by the cutter attached to the pipe. Once the fruit is cut from its stem, it will now go to the net and directly to the storage. This is done to avoid the softening of the fruit an as well as to save effort and time.