Wet cleaning ·washing· was found to be a necessary operation to maintain the
quality of fruits and vegetables, improve their marketability, and increase their shelf
life. The main objective of the present work is to introduce an economic, locally
made washing machine for fruits and vegetables producers, especially who own
medium and small holdings. The prototype was evaluated using orange and tomato fruits and taking into
account the effective design parameters such as, speed of fruits conveying and
transporting 0.8, 1.0, 1.2.and 1.4 mls., number of brushes (2, 3, and 4), and the
interference distance between the brushes hair used-while washing and the fruit
surface (0, 3, 6. and 9 mm). The results Indicated that the maximum machine produdivity was 1.29 ton/h
and 2.28 ton/h with cleaning efficiency of 97 and 98 % obtained when washing
oranges and tomatoes, respedlvely, while the corresponding values of the consumed
energies were 2.08 kW.Mon and 1.18 kW.hlton. Maximum operating cost was found
to be about 4.30 and 3.10 lElton in case of washing orange and tomato fruits,
respectively .