| Popis: |
A trail-type harvester for burley tobacco was designed, built and tested. The machine cuts the plants, makes a 45° notch in the stalk near its base and conveys the plants to a three-person hanging crew that hangs them on portable handling frames. A tractor front-end loader is used to remove and replace frames. An independent hydraulic system was used to supply fluid to hydraulic motors driving the cutting and notching saws, conveyors, and frame indexing device. Harvesting rate for the three person hanging crew was 36.8 plants/min and the estimated field capacity was 0.1 ha/hr with a theoretical field efficiency of 77%. The system offers a potential labor saving of 63% when compared to the manual-harvest conventional system. Leaves lost with the machine amounted to 1.3% and 4% for KY-14 variety and TN-86 variety, respectively. |
