The Brazilian citrus chain is one of the leaders on the export process. Mechanical injury is one important factor that should be minimized on this chain, in order to reduce and decrease postharvest losses due to no appropriate handling. On this work, critical points of impact were evaluated in imported and national equipments used for sorting citrus. The instrumented sphere, 70mm, (Techmark Inc., Lansing, EUA) was used for this evaluation, mesuring the magnitude of impact (G, m/s²) on transfer points in sorting lines of oranges and lemon. The instrumented sphere was placed together with the fruits in the receiving stage working in its regular daily capacity, following the normal flow until the stage of classification. The results showed that the critical points of impact were at the receiving step and also on the transfer point into the containers for storage. The magnitude of impact was significantly reduced when cushioned surfaces were used on different transfer points.
instrumented sphere; classification; lemon; orange
