Study on Non-contact Ultrasonic Transducer for Measurement of Fruit Firmness

This study was conducted to develop an non-contact ultrasonic transducer for measurement of fruit firmness. The center frequency of non-contact ultrasonic transducer was 500 kHz. As an active element of non-contact ultrasonic transducer, the 1-3 piezoelectric composite material was selected. That material has high piezoelectric properties such as electro-mechanical coupling factor, <TEX>kₜ</TEX> and piezoelectric voltage constant, <TEX>d₃₃</TEX> and also that material has low acoustical impedance which enables to matching the acoustical impedances between piezoelectric material and air. As a front matching material between 1-3 piezoelectric composite material and air, various kinds of paper with different thickness were tested. To control the dead-zone of the fabricated non-contact ultrasonic transducer, the backing material composed of epoxy resin and tungsten powder were made and evaluated. The fabricated non-contact ultrasonic transducer for fruit showed that the cneter frequency, bandwidth and beamwidth were approximately 480 kHz, 30 % and 12 mm, respectively. It was concluded that non-contact measurement of apple firmness would be possible by using the fabricated non-contact ultrasonic transducer.