Diseño y construcción de una máquina clasificadora de fresas a razón de 100 kg/hora.

Abstract

In the mechanical engineering branch, the need to design and build machines that improve and help solve problems is very often presented. For example the classification of the strawberry that is a fruit that grows in consumption. In this regard is created the need to build a machine classifier of this food that will improve the presentation and acceptance in the market. An integrated methodology was proposed to find the best alternative solution. It consists of 4 stages, each of them with several activities where they were used methods for their solution which are: Previous studies, a field study was carried out, characteristics of the strawberry, classification methods. Concept Design, determination of requirements based on the QFD matrix, Functional analysis, selection of the best alternative, study of components. Design of materialization, was used formulas for the sizing of the main components of the machine and selection of the elements. Detail Design, presents the necessary documents for the manufacture as they are parts blueprints, calculation memories. As a result of the evaluation of the sorting machine of strawberries in correspondence whit the capacity projected at 100 kg/hour whose output variables were the time and the effectiveness of the classification. It was obtained a time of 0.7 hours and a classification quality of the 98.3% thus fulfilling all the design parameters. It is recommended for a better effectiveness of the classification, the fruit must be in a percentage of its maturity of the 70 %. The operator should avoid the minimum contact with the product following the food handling standards, from the design of the machine, it has the capacity to classify fruits with similar characteristics to the strawberry.