1980 Volume 27 Issue 3 Pages 143-148
For the purpose of developing efficient methods to protect tomatoes from in-transit mechanical injury, vibration characteristics of a five-high stack arrangement of small type plastic containers, normally used for transportation, were analyzed. The resistivity against in-transit mechanical injury and creep response of tomato were also studied, using six cultivars of processingtomatoes: "Morioka 16", "Wase daruma", "Sugano", "Chiko 3", "Kagome 70" and "Kikko 413". The results obtained were as follows: 1. When the five-high stack arrangement of containers filled with the tomatoes were oscillated, the acceleration response in the top container was the highest and the transmissibility was 4.0 in the vibration range of 11Hz to 12Hz. 2. Under vibrating conditions, the tomatoes became softer and then cracked. The resistivity to intransit mechanical injury varied in cultivars tested. "Morioka 16" was the most resistant. The order of decreasing resistivity against damage was found to be: "Morioka 16", "Wase daruma", "Sugano", "Chiko 3", "Kagome 70" and "Kikko 413". 3. The tomatoes were most severely damagedin the bottom layer than in the any other layers in the container. With the increase of vibration acceleration level, damage increased more in the upper than in the middle layer. 4. Tomato was considered as Burgers model in creep respose. Element η3 rather than element K1 was closely related to the resistivity to in-transit mechanical injury.
