Abstract:
Olives have significant dietary and medicinal value around the globe. In Pakistan the
available potential area for olive production is more than 10 million acres, which will
lead the country to become the World's largest olive producer. The translation of raw
olives into dietary and medicinal products requires preprocessing. Major constraint in
preprocessing is efficient pit extraction from the fruit, which will call for a new export
portfolio. Electromechanical systems can be employed for efficient pit extraction. The
project is related to a semi-automated olive pitting machine. It is intended to handle
olives of a specific size and grade though the machine can destone every type and size
of olives subject to substitution of appropriate rollers and the needle box. It is necessary
to hold olives in a predetermined position prior to destoning so that needles strike olives
in a vertical fashion to remove pits. Since, the machine is semi-automated, so olives are
hand fed and human assistance is required while placing the olives into the molds on the
roller drum. The machine is equipped with a single AC motor that will power the
machine, and a Geneva mechanism that will provide the machine with intermittent
motion. Our Olive Pitting Machine is capable of destoning 70-80kg of olives per hour.
The machine is entirely made up of the material stainless steel. One of the novelties of
our machine is the customization of the roller drum to accommodate all types of olives.
The pit extraction is efficient which saves much more time and labor. The pitted olives
can be further processed. The machine has a positive impact on the overall yield of
olives. The machine is unique in its design, is highly compact, and ensures easy cleaning