Abstract
The chili pepper harvester has shown potential problems of low pepper stem separation and a high pepper damage rate. The low pepper stem separation has required additional labor, which consists of separating the pepper and stem after pepper harvesting. To improve the stem separation and sorting function of pepper harvesters, three-shaft and four-shaft drum-type stem-separation devices were manufactured, and performance tests were conducted to assess these devices. In an attempt to reduce the damage rate, a brush was used as the teeth in the drum-type stem-separation device. In the factor test, the rotational speeds of shaft 1(A), shaft 2(B), shaft 3(C), and the conveyor for the three-shaft drum were 0.9, 2.7, 1.3, and 0.5 m/s, respectively. The rotational speed of the four-shaft drum was the same as that of the three-shaft drum except for shaft 4(D), and the rotational speed of this additional D was set to 1.3 m/s, which was the same as that of C. In the non-moving status during the non-picking operation of the pepper harvester, the average stem-separation efficiency (SSE) of the four-shaft drum increased by 1.2%, the average pepper with twig rate (PTR) decreased by 5.9%, and the average damage rate (DR) increased by 3.7% compared to the three-shaft drum. In the moving status during the picking operation of the pepper harvester, the SSE of the four-shaft drum increased by 3.6%, the PTR decreased by 9.1%, and the DR increased by 3.8% compared to the three-shaft drum, so an improvement in the pepper stem-separation capacity was observed.
Highlights
AR Legend and Jeokyoung varieties were used as test samples, and the optimal rotation speed was selected based on factor performance tests for each drum and the conveyor rotation speed
To evaluate the comparative performances of the three-shaft drum and four-shaft drum stemseparation devices, the performance was tested according to each state, such as moving or non-moving status during picking operation or not, respectively
The stem-separation device developed in this study showed improved performance compared to the currently existing products
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The chili pepper is an important economic crop in Korea that is planted in early May and continuously harvested at least three times from the end of July; the production of the chili pepper is declining due to the aging of farm households and the slow mechanization rate. The harvest area and production of the chili pepper in Korea are both decreasing due to the increase in imports of chili peppers. The chili pepper harvest area, production, and self-supply rate have all decreased from 74,471 ha, 193,786 tons, and
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