Design, construction and evaluation of a washing machine with water circulation system for agricultural tuber products

There is an especial importance in machines used for washing the agricultural tuber products. Optimized use of water, energy and attention to the economical aspects are important factors in design of these machines. Regarding these factors, a device was designed, constructued and tested. Experiments were carried out to measure and analyze the amount of impurities and wastes, and the percentage of damage based on a randomized complete block design with factorial experiment with two products, three levels of input weight; three levels of speed of conveyor belt each with four replications. The results showed that the weight of the input product and the speed of the conveyor belt had no significant effect on the amount of waste materials per kg of product, but had a significant effect on the percentage of damages. The damage for potato was significantly higher than carrot. The optimum speed of the conveyor belt was found at 2.4 m s-1 for 5 kg min-1 feeding. The amount of water saved by the machine was one l min-1. Based on the results, with use of a filter in water circulation system and recycling the water, water saving of 50% was obtained.