Patent ID: 9442055
Filing Date: 2016-09-13
CPC Classification: G01N

Claim Text:
1. A method for determining hardness of an agricultural product, comprising: measuring a weight (m) of the agricultural product; applying to said agricultural product a dynamic force through a first piezo-electric transducer configured to generate a first electric signal corresponding to application of said dynamic force; detecting a dynamic reaction of said agricultural product through a second piezo-electric transducer configured to generate a second electric signal corresponding to transmission of said dynamic force through said agricultural product; analyzing said first and second electric signals correlated to the hardness of said agricultural product, and measuring said crossing time (Δt) and said path length (Δl) of said dynamic force through said agricultural product; calculating an index S4 from S4=m/(Δl·Δt determining the hardness (Du) of the agricultural product based on the calculated index S4 and a linear correlation Du=b·S4+a, where a and b are coefficients defining the linear correlation between a respective hardness (Du) and a respective index S4 measured on a respective agricultural product, and wherein the respective hardness (Du) was calculated from a penetrometer hardness test performed on the respective agricultural product and the respective index S4 was calculated from a non-destructive test comprising measurement data, detected by at least a piezo-electric transducer, of at least the crossing time (Δt) and the length of a path (Δl) of a dynamic force applied to and crossing through said respective agricultural product and measurement data of a weight of the respective agricultural product.