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- Number One again!
- Low-cost, low-energy desalination
- Project examines calf nutrition
- Researchers, engineers team up on saltcedar
- Researchers test new chile destemmer
- Ultra-short pulses promise big benefits
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- Energy innovation grant funds bio-digester
Left to right: M-TEC staff engineers Dale Cillessen and Ryan Herbon, along with graduate student Eduardo Gamillo, look over a chile destemmer machine they designed and built.
Researchers test new chile destemmer
NMSU researchers are well on their way to mechanizing the state’s chile industry.
Engineers and researchers from the College of Engineering Manufacturing Technology and Engineering Center (MTEC) and Sandia National Laboratories have been testing the second-generation prototype chile destemmer. The new prototype is designed to process 1,000 pounds of chile per hour.
One of the most difficult challenges was to create a method to remove the stems of chiles that vary in size and shape with the least amount of waste and without damaging the fruit. M-TEC engineer Ryan Herbon has devised a system that incorporates the use of a camera, a computer and a water-jet “blade.”
A camera takes an image of the chile as it moves on a conveyor belt. Herbon, with help from scientists at Sandia National Laboratories, has created a machine-vision algorithm that determines the best place to cut the stem with a water jet.
The goal is a system of four machines each having 10 lanes that will process 40,000 pounds per hour. Plans call for the system to be finalized and sent to a manufacturer in the fall of 2008 with the actual machines to be available in fall of 2009.
“We need to do everything we can to keep the industry competitive with the influx of foreign competition,” said Gene Baca, president of the New Mexico Chile Association.