MDT-1 with quick-load Teflon® base.
MDT Quick Buttons. The MDT makes it easy to test a fruit multiple times. Press green to test a new fruit or press yellow to test the same fruit again. If you have trouble with a test, press red to abort. The MDT keeps track of everything and gives you indiviual and average test data for each fruit as you test.
Example MDT probes (L-R: cherry, 11 mm apple, 8 mm pear, 4.7 mm, general compression fixture). Numerous interchangeable probes and fixtures make it easy to test anything: fruit, vegetables, other food products, plastics, textiles, etc. The MDT keeps track of fixture characteristics, so you can test an apple with an 8 mm pear probe, and the MDT will normalize and correct test results to the equivalent 11-mm probe pressure typically used for apples.
MDT Weigh Station and Automated Calibrator. Use the Weigh Station as a stand-alone digital scale, use it with the MDT as an integrated fruit scale, or place it under the test head and let the MDT use the Weigh Station to calibrate itself.
MDT Series Agricultural Penetrometer and Texture Analyzer
The MDT is a powerful portable multipurpose materials tester originally designed for use in the field and in the laboratory. With specialized software and fixtures designed for efficient and accurate high-volume fruit testing (including barcode scanner integration and automated report generation), upgrades include test protocol interpreter software for fully-programmable general materials testing and texture analysis.
This original MOHR MDT Penetrometer has been replaced by the improved MDT-2 model. |
MDT for Agricultural Testing
Save a lot of time, effort, and money
The MDT is optimized for fruit and vegetable testing. You will save at least 50% of the time you spend testing and managing data when you use the MDT. For organizations with high-volume testing (most growers, packing houses, and retailers), this can translate to major cost and efficiency savings. Here are a few ways you will save time and effort:
- Fast testing: The MDT can test faster than you can physically keep up (25+ tests/minute).
- Automated reports: All data is immediately tabulated and exported in customizable reports, viewable anywhere over a LAN or the internet.
- Barcode scanning: No more writing or entering information, including identification info! This can all be barcoded and is handled automatically by the MDT.
- Diameter / weight: The MDT records these parameters automatically.
- Integrated test data: MDT software allows any kind of test data to be barcoded in (titrable acidity, soluble solids, color, etc.) with the same high efficiency as MDT test data. These are included in your automated reports, too.
- Network integration: Test data is available immediately over the network.
- Portability: The MDT is lightweight, battery powered and designed to be used anywhere. Use it in the lab and then throw it in your truck for field use or carry it into the packing house.
- Ease of Use: We know you are busy and don't have the time or energy to figure out a new instrument. One button press gets you testing.
Get more meaningful test results
It turns out that the interior portion of an apple (and pear, and many other types of produce), which contains most of the edible material but is generally not tested by convential firmness testers, is actually one of the most important portions of the fruit to test. This is because fruit maturation progresses at a different (and often accelerated) rate within the interior of the fruit. A normal external fruit pressure value can mask a overly mature fruit interior. Discarding this important data leads to lower market share and dissatisfied consumers. Using this data gives your organization the edge in timing picking, optimizing storage parameters and shipping times, and in managing sales. The MDT gives you better data in a number of ways:
- Repeatable, accurate results: Effegi and Magness-Taylor data is easy to "fudge" and even with careful use can vary widely from operator to operator. The MDT is always accurate to within 0.01 lb, no matter who is using it.
- Complete fruit maturity data: The MDT gives you external fruit pressure, internal fruit pressure, crispness (analagous to the crunch you experience when biting a fruit), and creep deformation, and also gives you the Quality Factor (QF), a summation of all its test parameters, customized for each fruit type and scaled to 100 for optimum picking and 0 for the limit of consumer acceptability. For a complete description of MDT test parameters, read this.
- Instant statistics: Ever wonder what the "bell-curve" of your fruit looks like? The MDT gives you mean and standard deviation you as you test. Follow along on the MDT Server desktop software and see the histogram of fruit quality from multiple different testers.
Important MDT documents for agricultural users:
The Mohr Digi-Test (MDT) Computerized Agricultural Penetrometer as an Apple Maturity Tool. MDT test results described in detail.
Apple Quality Testing in Five Market Centers Using the MDT-1 Agricultural Penetrometer. Describes a comprehensive retail fruit quality test program carried out in a multistate region using the MDT.
MDT FAQ for agricultural users.
How to purchase
Please contact us for the sales representative in your area.
