Abstract
This study was carried out to test a red pepper tedding factors which is needed for design and development of an auto-tedding machine and a performance. According to this test, the results can be summarized as follows: The results of the tedding factors test according to shape of rotary blade, which is the 0.4 to 0.5 mm brush type, was found to be the most appropriate. As a result of tedding ratio which includes brush diameters, driving velocities and rotation velocities, there was generally no significance difference, but the red pepper tedding efficiency was found to be 39.7%. The moisture drying rate of red pepper was found to be 0.9 %w.b./h in prototype auto-tedding machine and 0.4 %w.b./h in traditional practice. The drying time was found to be 3 days in prototype auto-tedding machine and the traditional practice was 6 days. The average variable coefficient of the red pepper moisture content was found to be 16.8% in prototype auto-tedding machine in comparing with the traditional practice of 35.0%. This test showed a difference around two times, and this difference was evaluated to be the reason for irregular drying and different drying times.