Design And Study On Foodstuff Mechanical Properties Tester

The foodstuff mechanical properties tester, a detecting device for evaluating food quality objectively, can avoid being affected by personal factors in the traditional food tasting method, thus providing scientific and objective basis for testing food quality. Nowadays, the similar product such as Texture Analyser has been made abroad, which has a rather high price. However, this kind of device has not been found at home yet .So, this design fills the vacancy in national food mechanic properties test, and provides scientific foundation for improving the food flavor, texture and interest.Foodstuff mechanical properties tester transforms the electro motor's rotation movement to slipper's straight line movement by mechanical transmission apparatus. The slipper's movement drives the motorial chuck to move along the guiding rail with another fixed chuck installed on force sensor. The detected force value displays and analyses the data on LED or PC by mu-circuit and A/D converter. According to the change of the chuck and the difference of the clamping type, it can detect pull, press or sheer force. Then these forces are converted into food mechanic characters such as toughness, strength and so on. In this way it provides the reference for food quality evaluation. This tester has multiple usages and functions and is an intelligent device.On the basis of sufficient research on food mechanical properties tester home and abroad, this article analyzes and studies the testing principles of food mechanic properties, and puts the emphasis on the discussion of the detector's hardware and software design of electrical system. In the respect of hardware design, according to the precision, time and the cost of the detector, we select the appropriate chips and divide the whole hardware system into several modules to design respectively following the theory of module design. When each module is adjusted successfully, we combine them into a complete entity to ensure the high quality and the easy test of hardware. In the respect of software, according to the predicted function of this detector and the design of the hardware circuit, the software is specified as follows: initialization for MCU and system chips, sampling analog signals, signal process, real time display and serial port communication on MCU, and program interface design, serial port communication and data process on PC, etc. This tester is demarcated and tested and then is used to measure noodle and vermicelli for several times, completing the task of signal acquisition, real-time data display on LED and data transmission to PC for further processing and saving.The tester's measurement accuracy is 0.368% and the sampling speed is 3 times per second. The result of the test shows that the performance of the whole detector has met the requirement of the design. Conclusion can be drawn that this kind of detector has made online accurate measurement of food mechanic properties come true and will enjoy a wide application in the field of food testing and studying.