Early potatoes packing lines analysis

Because of great importance assumed by early potato in south Italy, in particular in Sicily, we have investigated on the stresses that the potatoes undergo during handling process. To this aim we have used the IS100 Instrumented Sphere, which have been inserted in a packing line during its running. Furthermore, to provide an initial contribution towards the determination of the correlations between the drop height, alterations in the potato and the stress measured on the line, single e repeated impact trials were carried out in laboratory. After that the human and energy resources used in the same line were evaluated, the level of acoustic pressure present in some work station was also measured. The trials on the packing line have allowed to specify the machinery able to transmit stress of great intensity to the potatoes, while the laboratory trials have showed the capacity of the repeated impacts to cause effects similar to a single impact of considerably greater intensity. Consequently, in the continuation of the experimentation one will have to, in some way, bear in mind the effect of the small repeated stresses that the packing lines transmit to the product.