Development and Evaluation of Self-propelled Cabbage/Cauliflower Harvester

Jagvir Dixit

Division of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, SKUAST-K, Srinagar (J&K), India

Naiem Jan Rawat

Division of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, SKUAST-K, Srinagar (J&K), India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36956/njas.v4i1.471

Copyright and Licensing

The authors shall retain the copyright of their work but allow the Publisher to publish, copy, distribute, and convey the work.

NASS Journal of Agricultural Sciences publishes accepted manuscripts under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Authors who submit their papers for publication by NASS Journal of Agricultural Sciences agree to have the CC BY-NC 4.0 license applied to their work, and that anyone is allowed to reuse the article or part of it free of charge for non-commercia. As long as you follow the license terms and original source is properly cited, anyone may copy, redistribute the material in any medium or format, remix, transform, and build upon the material.

Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers

It is absolutely essential that authors obtain permission to reproduce any published material (figures, tables or any extract of a text) which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyright holder. In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process, you should start obtaining permissions as early as possible. If in any doubt about the copyright, apply for permission. The journal cannot publish material from other publications without permission.

In exceptional circumstances articles may be licensed differently. If you have specific condition (such as one linked to funding) that does not allow this license, please mention this to the editorial office of the journal at submission. Exceptions will be granted at the discretion of the publisher.


Abstract

In the present study, self-propelled cabbage/cauliflower harvester was designed, developed and evaluated. The machine consisted of different components like engine, frame, shearing (cutting) unit and power transmission unit. The power transmission unit consisted of main clutch, shearing blade operating clutch, belt drive unit, chain and sprocket drive, universal joint and cutter blade assembly. The main working principle of harvester is based on shearing of crop stem against high-speed rotating blade. The power from the engine is transmitted by belt-pulley drive unit to transmission shaft on which chain and sprocket is mounted on one side and then power is transmitted to shearing blade coupling with the help of a stationary pulley and fixed socket. Average mean head diameter of the selected cabbage and cauliflower was 89.5 ± 15.24 mm and 107.5 ± 15.24 mm, respectively. Average mean stem (plant) diameter of the selected cabbage and cauliflower was 18 ± 4.85 mm and 21.5 ± 3.08 mm, respectively. The shearing force increased with increase in diameter of stem. The optimum performance of the machine was achieved when it was operated at 1.5 km/h forward speed and the shearing blade moving at speed of 147 rpm. The mean field capacity for developed prototype was observed as 0.063 ha/h and 0.053 in case of cabbage and cauliflower, respectively with field efficiency of 91.97 and 90.48 %. The average head damage was negligible (0.15 %) for both the crops. The average untrimmed percentage with developed harvester was 3.2 and 3.0% in case of cabbage and cauliflower crop, respectively. The developed machine helps to increase the field capacity in cabbage/cauliflower harvesting due to 7-times more capacity and 50% cheaper compared to traditional method of cabbage/cauliflower harvesting. At the operating condition of forward speed (1.5 km/h) and shearing blade speed (147 rpm), the machine could harvest 0.5 ha of cabbage and 0.42 ha of cauliflower farm per day of 8-h. This same task would have required between 15 labour per day if entirely done manually.

Keywords: Self-propelled, Harvester, Cabbage/cauliflower, Field Capacity, Field efficiency, Untrimmed percentage


References

[1] Anonymous, 2015. Directorate of Horticulture, Srinagar. Horticulture Division, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. (www.doh.co.in)

[2] Eiland, B., Clayton, J., 1983. Unburned and burned sugarcane harvesting in Florida. Tranaction of ASAE. 26(5), 1332-1336.

[3] Hasley, L.H., Beeman, J.F., 1996. Certain physical properties of cabbage in relation to harvest mechanization. Soc. Hort. Sci. 92, 438-445.

[4] Akande, A.L., 2004. Development of a Mechanical Harvester for Amaranthus. Unpublished M. Eng. Project Report, Fed. Univ. of Tech., Akure. pp. 5-6.

[5] Liu, Q.T., Qu, Y.G., Quing, S.L., Huang, S.X., 2007. High-speed photography analysis upon the damage process in cutting sugarcane stalk with smooth-edge blade. Transactions of CSAM. 38(10), 31-35.

[6] Du, D.D., Wang, J., Qiu, S.S., 2014. Optimization of cutting position and mode for cabbage Harvesting. Transaction of the CSAE. 30(12), 34-40.

[7] Olowojola, C.O., Faleye T., Agbetoye, L.A.S., 2011. Development and performance evaluation of a leafy vegetable harvester. International Research Journal of Agricultural Science and Soil Science. 1(7), 227-233.