On-line Magnetic Resonance Quality Evaluation Sensor

  • Kim, Seong-Min (Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering University of California) ;
  • McCarthy, Michael J. (Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering University of California) ;
  • Chen, Pictiaw (Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering University of California) ;
  • Zion, Boaz (Institute of Agricultural Engineering Agricultural Research Organization The Volcani Center)
  • Published : 1996.06.01

Abstract

A high speed NMR quality evaluation sensor was designed , constructed and tested . The device consists of an NMR spectrometer coupled to a conveyor system. The conveyor was run at speeds ranging from 0 to 250 mm/s. Spectral of avocado fruits and one-dimensional magnetic resonance images of pickled olives were acquired while the samples were moving on a conveyor belt mounted through a 20Tesla NMR magnet with a 20 mm diameter surface coil and a 150 mm diameter imaging coil respectively. Fro a magnetic resonance spectrum analysis, motion through variations in the magnetic field tends to narrow spectral line width just like using sample rotation in high resolution NMR to narrow spectral line width. Spectrum analysis was used to detect the dry weight of avocado fruits using the ratio oil and water resonance peaks. Good correlations maximum r=0.970@ 50 mm/s and minimum r=0.894@250mm/s ) between oil and water resonance peak ratio and dry weight of avocados were observed at speeds ra ging from0 to 250mm/s. For the application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method, the projections were used to distinguish between pitted and non-pitted olives . Effect of fruit position in the coil was tested and coil degree effects were noticed when projects were generated under dynamic conditions. Various belt speeds (up to 250mm/s) were tested and detection results were compared to static measurements. Higher classification errors were occurred at dynamic conditions compared to errors while olives were at rest.

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