Study of the nature of the movement of the crushed mass on the surface of the sieves of the vegetable and melon seed separator

Abstract

Improvement of equipment for processing vegetable and melon crops requires research on the nature of the movement of the crushed mass to reduce material damage and obtain high-quality seeds, which will bring the vegetable and melon industry to a new level of development. The aim of the study is to analyse the movement of the crushed mass on the surface of the sieves of the vegetable and melon seed separator. The nature of the movement of the crushed mass on the surface of the sieves of the proposed design solution was substantiated on the basis of the use of methods of physics, theoretical mechanics and analysis and study of the physical and mechanical characteristics of the technological mass. As a basic design for the study, a vegetable and melon separator were used, the feature of which is the use of a two-screen system of sieves. In this system, the upper sieve separates the peel, and the lower sieve separates the seeds and pulp; the pulp and juice are the final product of the second sieve. The sieve, which performs inertial motion, helps to remove the seeds associated with the peel. As a result of the research, the functional dependence of the amplitude of oscillations on the frequency of oscillations for different operating modes of the separator is presented. To determine the average speed of material movement in the technological zone of the separator, formulas are provided for the upper screen operating in the inertial separator mode and for the lower screen operating in the vibration separator mode. In the context of the above-mentioned features of the proposed design solution, the nature of the movement of the crushed mass along the surface of the inertial and vibrating screens was studied. In the course of theoretical calculations, dependencies were obtained to determine the average particle velocity in the working area of these sieves. On the basis of the theoretical analysis, a methodology for calculating the main parameters of a double-screen separator was developed. The mechanical and technological properties of vegetable and melon seeds separated by the proposed design solution were determined. In laboratory conditions, the composition of the components of the separated seed mass was studied and analysed, which indicates the feasibility of using the proposed design solution for the separator of vegetable and melon crops and the practical application of the obtained theoretical dependencies for regulating its technological parameters