Design and Experiment of Picking-up Mechanism of Axial-flow Full-feed Peanut Harvester

Abstract

Peanut is an important oil crop and cash crop in China. With the increasing uncertainties in international agricultural trade, efficient peanut harvesting equipment are playing a key role in maintaining the safety of Chinas oil trade. Influenced by complex operation environment and multi target reference system, the picking up mechanism of axial flow full feed peanut combine harvester had the problems of high dropping rate, high damage rate and high power consumption rate. The key structural parameters and operation parameters of the picking mechanism were determined by combining theoretical analysis with field experiments. The theoretical range of the main parameters of the picking up mechanism were established. Based on Box-Benhnkens central combination theory, responsing surface tests were carried out with three factors as influencing factors, namely, mechanism rotation speed, machine advancing speed and elastic teeth spacing. The effects of various factors on picking up and dropping rate, damage rate and power consumption rate were analyzed and the influencing factors were optimized. The significant order of dropping rate was: mechanism rotation speed, machine forward speed, and elastic teeth spacing. The significant order of pod damage rate was mechanism rotation speed, elastic teeth spacing and machine advancing speed. The significant order of influence of power consumption ratio was machine forward speed, mechanism rotation speed and elastic teeth spacing. The optimal combination of working parameters were the mechanism rotation speed of 63.62r/min, the spacing between elastic teeth of 75.23mm and the forward speed of the machine of 1.07m/s, the corresponding dropping rate was 2.15%, picking up loss rate was 3.53% and power consumption rate was 7.92%. The picking up quality was improved and the harvesting cost was reduced. Results of the research could provide a reference for the perfect design of picking up mechanism and optimization of operation parameters of axial flow peanut full feed harvester. The test device was based on the picking up mechanism of axial peanut full feed harvester, and the test object was only “Yuhua 9327” peanut variety. It was suggested that the picking performance should be discussed in depth under the conditions of different peanut varieties and peanut harvesting equipment with different structures.

Keywords: peanut harvester, picking mechanism, axial flow