Justification of a new technical solution for the development of potato harvesting machines

Abstract

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.

Design and Experiment of Toggle Lever-Type Potato Picker

“…In 2015, China officially recognized potatoes as the fourth major staple food, following rice, wheat, and corn, at the "Symposium on the Development Strategy of Potatoes as Staple Food" [1][2][3]. According to 2021 statistics, China's potato-planting area exceeded 4.63 million hectares, yielding over 90 million tons, which accounts for approximately one-fourth of the world's total potato planting area and production [4,5]. The continuous expansion of potato planting areas and the gradual increase in production have made the level of mechanized potato picking a crucial factor influencing both yield and quality [6][7][8].…”