Development of ultrasonic transducer for nondestructive testing of fruit

In this study, the ultrasonic transducers for contact measurement of whole fruits were developed. The design parameters for ultrasonic transducer such as acoustical impedance of fruits, kinds of piezoelectric materials, ultrasonic wave frequency, and transducer diameter were investigated. In order to match the impedance between piezoelectric material and fruit, various wear plates were fabricated and evaluated. And to control the bandwidth of ultrasonic wave of the transducer, various backing materials were fabricated and evaluated. The wear plate of the transducer was specially designed and fabricated considering the curvature of fruit. Two kinds of transducers such as 100 kHz of central frequency with 40 mm of transducer diameter and 200 kHz of central frequency with 20 mm diameter were developed. Nondestructive evaluation of the fruit will be possible with the developed ultrasonic transducers.