Automatic box fillers are used to jumble-fill boxes at rates up to 

 450 boxes per hour without the use of manual labor. The box is automatically 

 positioned, tilted up, filled with fruit, and discharged from the box filler. 

 The only labor required is for supplying empty boxes and removing the full 

 ones. This equipment was used to box both cull and utility-grade apples. 

 Figure 6 shows a box filler in use. 



COST OF PACKING WITH THE EXPERIMENTAL LINE 



The evaluation of a packing line must take into consideration the cost 

 of moving a given quantity of fruit through the dumping, sorting, sizing, 

 and packing operations. There are other costs, such as management, super- 

 vision, heating, or housekeeping, that are at least partly chargeable to the 

 packing operation. However, such costs vary widely between plants, and are 

 more likely to reflect the effects of localized conditions rather than the 

 effectiveness of the packing method and equipment. Consequently, only the 

 costs of direct labor and equipment are included in this analysis. 



Assumptions Used in Computing Costs 



To compute packing costs, it is necessary to assume a set of conditions 

 relating to the volume of fruit both dumped and packed, the rate at which 

 apples are dumped, and wage rates of workers. The conditions assumed here 

 represent those which might be found in an average-size packing plant in the 

 New York-New England area. 



These conditions will probably never occur together in a packinghouse. 

 However, use of a reasonable set of assumptions permits individual packers 

 to estimate what the cost of such operations would be in their own plants. 

 The following assumptions were used in computing the cost of packing with 

 the experimental line having a dumping rate of 50,000 boxes per year or 

 900 boxes per day and having a wage rate (to include overtime, bonuses, 

 insurance, social security payments, and other fringe benefits) of $1.25 per 

 hour: 



Weight of apples in different containers: Pounds 



Northeast box, orchard run . . . . 38 



Cell pack, carton. 37 



Utility grade in jumble-pack „ . . . 40 



Cull grade in jumble-pack . 40 



Bagged apples in master carton 38 



Distribution of orchard-run apples: Percent 



Cell pack 60 



Utility grade (jumble-pack) 25 



Cull grade (jumble-pack) 5 



Bags 10 



- 9 - 



