Design and Experiment of Vertical Rotating Self-propelled Fixed-angle Straw Cleaning Machine in East China Rice and Wheat Crop Rotation Area

Abstract

The straw cleaning device plays a crucial role in advancing the adoption of mechanized conservation tillage technology. It is primarily categorized into horizontal and vertical rotary straw cleaning mechanisms. In the horizontal rotary configuration, the cutter shaft operates parallel to the seeding belt’s surface, leading to the co-disposal of soil during the cleaning process, which can result in the generation of fugitive dust or the accumulation on the equipment. On the other hand, the vertical rotary straw cleaning utilizes a cutter shaft perpendicular to the seeding belt, making it more suitable for damp clay conditions due to the absence of longitudinal velocity components during the cleaning process. However, this design tends to carry straw back onto the seeding belt, thereby reducing the cleaning efficiency. To address these practical challenges, a fixed-angle straw cleaning approach for vertical rotary mechanisms and an electric-powered, self-propelled device for sowing wheat with rice straw was proposed. This system was designed to maintain a constant cleaning-teeth angle through structural analysis and design, thereby preventing straw from being reintroduced to the seedbed. Additionally, the determination of key structural parameters was based on the analysis of the soil cutting distance by the cleaning teeth. The key structure parameters of the cleaning-tooth device were determined through the analysis of the soil cutting distance. The analysis applied a three-factors and three-levels orthogonal test method. The experimental factors included the operation speed, the coefficient of trajectory distance, and the cut depth, while the experimental evaluation indexes were the straw cleaning rate and power consumption per unit area. This process tested and optimized the relevant parameters that affected the working performance of the straw cleaning device. When the parameters consisted of operation speed ranging from 4km/h to 8km/h, the coefficient of trajectory distance of 2, and the cut depth of 10mm, the straw cleaning rate was not less than 89.7% and the power consumption per unit area was not more than 1.84W·h/m2. Notably, there was no soil adhesion throughout the entire experiment. These research findings had the potential to transcend the limitations of sowing equipment operation in moist clay environments, thereby providing vital technical support for the mechanization development of rice-wheat rotation.

Keywords: rice and wheat crop rotation area;rice straw;straw cleaning machine;vertical rotary;fixed-angle straw cleaning;electric self-propelled