DEVELOPMENT OF LIGHTWEIGHT TOOLS FOR FRUIT WRAPPING AND HARVESTING

Abstract

This research presents the development of a lightweight and user-friendly fruit wrapping and harvesting tool suitable for fruit trees with low-to-medium height canopies. The developed tool utilizes a 1 inch diameter aluminum tube weighing 400 g, extendable up to 3 m in length, featuring an internal wire mechanism connected to a grip handle. For fruit wrapping, the mechanism releases a rubber band to secure a plastic bag around the fruit stem, thereby protecting it from insects. For fruit harvesting, the device is equipped with a downward-facing acute-angled blade to cut the fruit stem and a net to collect the fruit. Performance tests were conducted with three trials on mangoes (Khieo Sawoei variety) and santols, and the average operation times were recorded. For mangoes with a circumference of approximately 20–21 cm and a length of 10–11 cm, the average times for wrapping and harvesting were 20.26 s/fruit and 30.37 s/cycle, respectively. In each harvesting cycle, no more than 2–3 fruits were collected, with a total weight not exceeding 1,800 g. For santols with a circumference of about 28–30 cm, wrapping and harvesting took an average of 11.64 s/fruit and 5.31 s/cycle, respectively, with a capacity of up to three fruits per cycle and a total weight of approximately 1,000 g. The results indicated that round fruits required less operation time than elongated fruits. The performance evaluation demonstrated that the average time for fruit wrapping and harvesting of mango and santol was consistently lower than the benchmark values obtained from farmers. The t-test results further confirmed that the developed wrapping and harvesting tool significantly reduced the time required for mango and santol compared with the standard reference values, with significance at the 0.01 level.