Impact Recording Device (IRD)

The Science of Bruise

The Facts about bruise damage:

The physics behind bruise have been well documented by agricultural and packaging engineers for over 30 years.

Research has determined that the severity and frequency of bruise depends on 2 important criteria:

1) Force (or maximum acceleration of the impact (G)

2) Duration (or velocity change) of the impact (m/s)

Force (G) measurements alone do not accurately predict severity or likelihood of bruise damage.

For further research into the scientific basis for bruising and its evaluation please refer to this list of research findings.

IRD Research Literature

This is what makes the IRD the most precise instrumented sphere in the market place for bruise detection and reduction.

Why are force and velocity change both important?

Each fruit and vegetable type have unique characteristics which determine how it will respond to impact forces on various surfaces.

For most fruits and vegetables that have been investigated, the response curve looks like this:

   The damage boundary is not flat with respect to force (G).

In this figure, the 2 impacts described in the graph, A and B, are on opposite sides of the damage boundary.

Impact A will cause more severe damage than impact B.

The same force applied on different surfaces can result in different bruise potentials; this is the core science behind the IRD and how it can effectively identify the impacts which will affect your bottom line through loss of quality

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