Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version.

If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options.

Mango is one of the main fruits grown in the country, being Mexico the main world exporter of fresh produce. The mango drying industry is growing daily, as the producers want to earn more for their product. However, the industry has to be automated in order to compete with the prices of the Asian countries. Pulp extracting and mango stripe positioning are the bottlenecks in the industry as they require intensive manual labor. Mango stripes have a special consistency and tend to glue together. A hopper distributes the mango in a conveyor belt and after being singled it is deposited over 1 mt2 sieve. When two mango stripes interact due to improper positioning, color differences result after the drying and a poor product quality is obtained. A machine vision system monitors to see whether each mango stripe contour does not intersect with another. In case that the stripes are touching a mechanism is used to separate the mango stripes. A high efficiency was achieved and the product quality increased.