Performance Improvement for a Drying Process of Durian Particle Board using Hot Air Oven with Embedded System and Image processing

Abstract

This research presents the drying process of particleboards from durian peel applied using embedded system and image processing techniques in order to increase the efficiency of drying process, to increase the quality of the particleboard, and to decrease energy consumption during drying process. A new hot air oven system consists of conventional hot air oven with dimension of 40 cm x 60 cm x 35 cm. Its internal structure included 2 hot coils, temperature controller indicator and sensor system, real-time moisture indicator system. Particleboards from durian peel with dimension of 20 cm × 20 cm x 1 cm are the sample in this study. Installing embedded system could assist controller system adjusting temperature in a real-time situation. In addition to this system, the drying process could be stopped when the moisture content in the particleboard reaches the setting point without using constant setting time. The results reveal that it is necessary to use high temperature in the first period to rapidly evaporate the moisture content on the surface of the particleboard. When particleboard has moisture content lower than 30%, then the system decreases the temperature to reserve energy of drying process but the moisture content still decreases continuously. Hue level calculation in the form of HSV indicated that the end particleboards have better uniform color. In a conclusion, the novel hot air oven with embedded system and image processing technique is developed to increase performance, efficiency and especially save energy consumption during drying process compared with the conventional hot air dryer.