Design of Potato Harvester
Author(s):
Lili Xin* Jihui Liang
Source:
L. L. Xin & J. H. Liang, “Design of Potato Harvester,” Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Developments, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 380-384, 2017.
ABSTRACT: Potato cultivation is wide and the planting amount is large, and its harvesting work is arduous. By using a potato harvester, the labor intensity of laborers can be greatly reduced. The process of potato harvesting mainly includes excavation, separation of potato and soil, picking and other processes, the use of vibration can effectively improve the integrity rate, reduce the damage rate, while separating the soil and potato pieces thoroughly. At present, some potato harvester adopts shaking device to complete the separation of potato and soil. However, due to the non-adjustable vibration parameters of the machine, there are still some problems such as poor adaptability of agronomic requirements, poor resistance of soil, poor soil and potato separation and heavy potato damage. In this paper, we designed a potato harvester with adjustable vibration parameters to address the above problems. The forked plate excavator welds the excavation plate and fork, the depth is greater than that of the potato growth, and the damage rate of the potato is low. The frequency modulation device adjusts the frequency of the shaking device by changing the size of the outer sprocket on the convey driving shaft or on the shaking shaft and by adjusting the tensioning lever of the tensioning device. The amplitude modulation device changes the amplitude by adjusting the connecting rod position. The results of this study can provide some reference for the design and optimization of potato harvesting machinery.
Keywords: Vibration; Potato harvester; Traction resistance