Cucumber

To feed desired amount of 400 grams of cucumber, a precutting to < 40-70 mm length would be required. The precut sample filled the 1,4 liter grinding vessel almost completely with this bulk size. We estimate that up to 500 grams of sample could be filled, when a slightly finer precutting would be performed.

By the geometry of the standard knife, a rapid comminution is possible. Because of higher area surface (compared to a sickled knife), and because of the high sample amount, a reduced speed setting was picked for comminution.

We programmed a SOP which ground the sample for two second at 7000 rpm, followed by two seconds of pausing after each cycle. After the first 20 seconds (10 cycles), we found some fragments < 2 mm. The sample volume collapsed, all fragments slide back to the bottom, the usage of the vario lid was not necessary for this application.

After 60 seconds of grinding, the complete cucumber was ground to a homogenous green, thin viscous mass. We don’t expect that the fineness would improve any further when a longer grinding time would be applied.

The trial was aborted at this point and the equipment was flushed with water and a few droplets of dish washing agent. After 10 seconds at maximum speed setting, no residues of the ground sample stuck to the knife or the vessel. The equipment was flushed with fresh water and dissembled for drying.