PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | June 3, 2011
Proc. SPIE. 8027, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety III
KEYWORDS: Packaging, Safety, Agriculture, Imaging systems, Complex systems, Inspection, Pathogens, Machine vision, Mechanical engineering, Mechanical sensors
The physical and mechanical properties of baby spinach were investigated, including density, Young's modulus, fracture
strength, and friction coefficient. The average apparent density of baby spinach leaves was 0.5666 g/mm3. The tensile
tests were performed using parallel, perpendicular, and diagonal directions with respect to the midrib of each leaf. The
test results showed that the mechanical properties of spinach are anisotropic. For the parallel, diagonal, and
perpendicular test directions, the average values for the Young's modulus values were found to be 2.137MPa, 1.0841
MPa, and 0.3914 MPa, respectively, and the average fracture strength values were 0.2429 MPa, 0.1396 MPa, and 0.1113
MPa, respectively. The static and kinetic friction coefficient between the baby spinach and conveyor belt were
researched, whose test results showed that the average coefficients of kinetic and maximum static friction between the
adaxial (front side) spinach leaf surface and conveyor belt were 1.2737 and 1.3635, respectively, and between the
abaxial (back side) spinach leaf surface and conveyor belt were 1.1780 and 1.2451 respectively. These works provide the
basis for future development of a whole-surface online imaging inspection system that can be used by the commercial
vegetable processing industry to reduce food safety risks.
