# A Proposal for a Processing Line for Cauliflower and Broccoli Florettling
## 3 Structure of the Processing Line
Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the designed vegetable crusher for cauliflower and broccoli infloresences: 1—waste container (e.g., for discarded leaves), 2—container for separated stalks, 3—platform, 4—container for unprocessed vegetables, 5—load-bearing frame, 6—electric motor, 7—floreting knife, 8—processing table, 9—crushing chamber, 10—cutters of the crushing roller, 11—screen at the bottom of the hopper, 12—conveyor belt, 13—container for separated florets. Figure 2: Schematic diagram of the designed calibrator for cauliflower and broccoli florets: 1—control arm with adjustable length, 2—mechanism driving the screen box, 3—electric motor, 4—belt transmission, 5—load-bearing frame, 6—hopper, 7—feeder, 8—stirring rod, 9—mechanism driving the stirring rod, 10—container for excessively crushed florets, 11—screen box, 12—container for appropriately sized florets, 13—container for oversized florets. A processing line containing the discussed devices is presented in Figure 3. The vegetable crusher (1) is operated by two persons, and the calibrator (2)--by one or two persons. The line should be equipped with five containers for raw materials and semi-processed products, as well as three additional conveyor belts. As already mentioned, the operator at the processing table of the vegetable crusher (1) picks whole cauliflower and broccoli heads from the container (3), selects the appropriate conical knife and removes the stalk that falls into another container (4) placed under the table. The florets and leaves are gathered on the table, leaf fragments are picked manually and are placed in the appropriate container (5), and the remaining raw material is fed manually into the crushing chamber (4) where large florets are crushed, their fragments pass through the screen openings and fall onto the conveyor belt. The quality of florets on the moving conveyor belt is evaluated by another person who can remove excessively damaged florets and their fragments as well as impurities such as leaves. These fractions are transported by the conveyor belt (8) to the container (5). Qualified material is transported by the hopper belt conveyor (9) to the calibrator hopper (2). Oversized florets can block the openings in the screen box, and they should be manually removed by one or two persons positioned by the screen box. The person operating the second mesh screen can be also tasked with dividing oversized florets into smaller pieces that can pass through screen openings. In a standard set-up, the smallest (excessively crushed) florets are directed to container (6), appropriately sized florets are directed to container (7), and oversized florets are directed to hopper belt conveyor (10) and transported to the processing table of the vegetable crusher (1). Two additional persons can be employed to operate the processing line. One person would deliver containers with infloreserences and receive containers with crushed leaves and stalks, and the other person would process containers with differently sized florets. According to the requirements of collection points, broccoli florets weighing 0.5 to 2.0 kg [36] and cauliflower florets weighing 0.5 to 3.0 kg [19; 37; 38; 39] (average weight of around 1.2 kg and around 2.0 kg, respectively) can be used for processing. The operator at the processing table of the vegetable crusher picks individual florets from a container--this operation will take around 2 s. The operator evaluates the diameter of the stalk, the inflorescence is pushed downwards onto the appropriately sized knife, and side florets are separated. This stage of the process will take approximately 2 to 4 s, depending on the size of broccoli and cauliflower florets. The removal of the apical floret with an additional knife will take around 2 s. In the next stage, the operator picks leaf fragments manually from the florets and leaves that are gathered on the table, and places them in the appropriate container, and then moves the florets to the crushing chamber.