Design and Performance Evaluation of Engine Operated Mango (<i>Mangifera Indica L.</i>) Fruits Size Grading Machine

Mango is a tropical fruit of highly seasonal, the most popular fruits and graded manual in Ethiopia. Hence, manual grading is time consuming, requires more labor and low output. So, this study was under taken with aims of design and evaluate engine operated mango fruits size grading machine. The grader consists of mainframe, feeding table, grading unit, grading unit cover, outlets, collection boxes, engine sit, and wheel, handle and power transmission system. The experimental design used was factorial in a completely randomized design with two factors (three levels of speeds and feed rate with three replications). The maximum grading capacity of 2584.86kg/h, grading efficiency of 90.66%, fruit damage of 2.67%, 2.88 (mL/kg) respectively were obtained. Statistically, the main and interaction of speed and feed rate had a significant effect on grading capacity, grading efficiency, percent of fruit damage and fuel of mango fruits size grading machine at (p < 0.05). Generally, it can be concluded that mango fruits size grading machine was simple in design, evaluation, easy in operation, and found to be suitable for medium-scale farmers, retailers and whole sellers.