The most important issue when developing the machine technology of cabbage harvesting is to protect the heads from mechanical damage. In this regard, the article describes a new technology for harvesting cabbage based on a prototype developed by the authors of a multivariate cabbage harvester. This technology of cabbage machine harvesting differs from the known gentle mode of stacking heads in containers on a low-frame trailer accompanying the harvesting unit. The authors first simulated the workflow of this technology using the queuing theory. As a result, a quantitative relationship between the performance indicators of the cabbage harvesting process and the structural and technological parameters of the machine in the studied variant was established. On its basis, rational values of parameters of the machine were defined: the number of jobs at the completion table, the longitudinal conveyor and on the site of the low-frame trailer, respectively, n1 = 2, n2 = 4, and n3 = 4; the length of the conveyor-cutter and the longitudinal conveyor, respectively, was 2.8 and 4 m.
Currently used potato harvesters with bar and screening screening devices, based on intense impact on the soil layer, significantly injure the potato tubers in the process of separation from the soil. In addition, structural elements operating in an abrasive environment without lubrication wear out intensively, prone to sticking to plant residues. In this regard, proposed and justified theoretically constructive-technological scheme of the new potato harvester, containing a frame with support wheels, a sieve consisting of longitudinal bars, kinematically connected by a rear part by a drive shaft by means of eccentric pins, located in antiphase with respect to each other, mounted by the front part with the guide on the axis with rollers and fixed rigidly through one to the shares, as well as from the beaters located in the slots between the rods. The paper analyzes the kinematic mode of the machine. As a result, it was established that the layer of soil on the separating rods is cyclically subjected to bending, compression and stretching. This contributes to its intensive crumbling and screening between the rods. For more efficient operation of the machine, it is recommended to adopt the angular velocity of rotation of the eccentric shaft of the separating device ω1 = 10...15 s-1.
BACKGROUND:The 15-20% of the product of machine harvesting of cabbage are cabbage leaves and the remains of weeds. Known devices installed at cabbage harvesters for separating associated waste products do not operate with sufficient quality. In this regard, a new separating device has been developed.
AIMS:Assessment of the effectiveness of operation of a new separating device in assembly with a cabbage harvester in laboratory conditions.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:In order to carry out the research, a separating device made in the form of a rotating roller is in-stalled above the web of the conveyor-cutter of the experimental cabbage harvester with a gap be-hind the unloading zone of the cutting device at the angle to the direction of the cabbage flow. Under laboratory conditions, the working process of the device was studied by supplying a mass of cabbage (heads and cabbage leaves) to the rotating roller, driving the blocks of the cutting device and the conveyor-cutter of the cabbage harvester from the electric motor.
RESULT:As a result of the experiments carried out under the PFE-22program, the dependence of the opera-tion quality (the degree of separation of cabbage leaves from heads) on the leaves percentage and the size-mass characteristics of heads in the flow was studied. At the same time, it was found that the developed device as a whole operates steadily, the process of separation of associated waste products proceeds most successfully with small and medium sizes of heads and a lower content of cabbage leaves in the flow.
CONCLUSIONS:The developed device separates the associated waste products from heads of cabbage sufficiently in the entire range of their content in the flow from 10 to 20%, which is typical for real field conditions.
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