The effect of work of inclined belt conveyors on the quality of hop separation in hop picking line

Abstract

The article summarizes the results of a two-year research focused on separating impurities in hop picking line by means of inclined belt conveyors. Researchers designed a new version of inclined belt conveyors which were installed in one segment of a parallel hop picking line. In the other segment the current inclined belt conveyors remained. Regarding the product quality, better results were obtained with new inclined belt conveyors where the average content of impurities at the output was 7.73%, contrary to the treatment with current conveyors where the content of impurities was 12.03%. The current inclined belt conveyors had 4.8 times higher losses of hops than the new ones. The economic assessment clearly proves the use of new inclined belt conveyors to be more effective, as the return of the costs for the exchange of six inclined belt conveyors in a picking line makes only 3.13 years at a comparable or even better quality of separation.

Use of biologically active substances in hops

“…Climatic fluctuations of the past decades have affected all crops not only in the Czech Republic. These abiotic stresses can be partly compensated by agrotechnical measures, irrigation or the use of biologically active substances (Nesvadba et al 2003, Rybka et al 2014.The results of many experiments (Pavlovic et al 2012, Nováková et al 2014, Procházka et al 2015b) clearly show that the use of biologically active substances in the cultivation, not only of hops but also of other crops, leads to increased production and yield stabilization. According to these authors, plants with biologically active substances can react to different stress conditions and weather fluctuations.One of the ways to increase the production potential of hop plants, and thus their production, is the application of biologically active substances during vegetation .…”

“…Climatic fluctuations of the past decades have affected all crops not only in the Czech Republic. These abiotic stresses can be partly compensated by agrotechnical measures, irrigation or the use of biologically active substances (Nesvadba et al 2003, Rybka et al 2014.…”