ABSTRACT
As the cost of traditional methods of mechanical or manual transport increases, the possibility of hydraulic transport of oranges in channels, as already used by some national industries, becomes economically attractive. The hydraulic transport of fruit is particularly advantageous considering that water is relatively cheap and that the possibility exists to join other work areas from processing to transport. This leads to an analysis of the behavior of fruit immersed in water to correlate their orientation with the following parameters: specific gravity, sphericity and physical aspect. For this purpose, oranges were properly characterized, immersed in water and their behavior was properly observed. For the several orientations obtained, a report was made about the inner condition of the fruit as to its physical aspect. It was noted that 97% of the fruit, which had the same orientation, had a good physical aspect, i.e., were suitable for consumption. The rest of fruit showed a different orientation from expected, 81% had some type of inner damage, 11% had less mean water content than the average of oranges tested, and 8% had a significantly different shape, i.e., they had a degree of sphericity different than the average of fruit tested.
Key words:
hydraulic transport; oranges; orientation; selection