Abstract:
Food preparation is an important part in food industry. One of it is cutting vegetables
into a desired thickness. This innovation intends to encourage restaurant operators to
speed up and simplifying the process of cutting vegetables. The study showed that
majority of restaurant operators in Malaysia used manual vegetable cutting techniques
which takes time to deliver the dish to their customers. Therefore, this study focuses on
the design and development of automatic vegetable cutting machines. The key goal of
this project is to ensure immediate turnaround time and maximize the amount of cut
vegetables. Methods used involves problem statement, idea generation, machine design,
project construction and modification. A sequence of checks will be carried out on the
system to ensure that it follows the standards that have been set and running properly.
The machine performance was evaluated in the cutting of non-leafy vegetables such as
cucumber, potato, onion and brinjals into sizes at certain machine speeds. The parameters
investigated were cutting performance and the throughput capacity. The findings of the
study show that the unit can successfully cut root and tuber crops with slices ranging
from 8 mm to 9 mm in thickness. Considerations for the design of the machine include:
product resistance to cutting, moisture content, slice length, cutting speed, overall power
requirement and power supply. As a conclusion, this project focuses on design and
production of automatic vegetable slicer with a view to integrating design, science and
technology to deliver goods that are usable and attractive for consumers.
