One of the most-used methods of tomato preservation is drying before storage. Tomatoes are best dried when sliced, but the manual way of slicing tomato using a knife is both energy and time consuming, and, of course, prone to injury when not done carefully.
To solve the problems encountered in the slicing of tomatoes, a motorized tomato slicing machine which is capable of conserving human energy, reducing time spent in slicing, and providing safety as well as hygiene to users, and serves as a source of income to small and medium scale farmers was designed, constructed, and tested. Fully riped tomato samples were obtained and divided into three (large, medium, and small) classes. Machine performance was based on classification and slicing efficiency, output capacity, and percentage damage.
The machine was designed to cut tomatoes into slices of 2.45cm thick. The percentage damage, slicing efficiency, and output capacity for large, medium, and small tomatoes were 93.33% and 179.25kg/hr, 5%, 88.33% and181kg/hr, 5%, 81.67% and 178kg/hr respectively. The results of the study showed that the motorized machine can slice tomatoes effectively and satisfactorily.
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Kabir, M & Saeed, H & Usman, Danladi & Adamu, B. (2021). Design, Construction and Performance Evaluation of a Motorized Tomato Slicing Machine. IOSR Journal of Engineering. 11. 18 - 25.