Post Harvest Physical and Mechanical Properties of Apricot Fruits, Pits and Kernels (C.V. Sonnati Salmas) Cultivated in Iran

The physical and mechanical characteristics of Sonnati Salmas apricot fruits, pits and kernels were studied in this study. Technological properties such as dimensions, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, surface area, bulk density, true density, porosity, volume, mass, true density, bulk density, porosity, 1000-unit mass, coefficient of static friction on various surface and rupture force in 3 axes, were determined at 82.34, 16.48 and 13.03% moisture contents for apricot fruits, apricot pits and apricot kernels respectively. Bulk densities of fruits, pit and kernels were 443.2, 539.4 and 540.1 kg/m3, the corresponding true densities were 940.7, 1045.5 and 1023.6 kg/m3 and the corresponding porosities were 52.87, 48.40 and 47.21%, respectively. The volumes, mass and surface area of fruits were larger than those of pits and kernels. Static coefficient of friction of fruit on all surfaces (wood, glass, galvanize sheet and fiber glass sheet) were measured and static coefficient of friction was less bout for pits and kernels on glass and their value were 0.474 and 0.188, respectively. Rupture force of fruit, pit and kernel were 10.11, 497.79 and 18.92 N through length, 7.98, 322.59 and 41.97N through width and 7.01, 337.21 and 99.58 N through thickness. Results showed that rupture force through length were minimum and this result is very important factor in design post harvest machines, especially about apricot pit crasher machine.