Harvesting Speed Research Articles

Mechanized harvesting of 'Conilon' coffee clones

Abstract: The objective of this work was to evaluate the speed effect of a coffee harvester and its interaction with 'Conilon' coffee (Coffea canephora) clones on the mechanical harvesting efficiency. The experiment was installed in São Mateus, in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, in 2012, with 27 clones of early, intermediate, and late fruit ripening. The first harvest was performed after the plant cuttings at 0.5 m above the ground, in 2016, and the canopy renovation. The plants and the harvester were evaluated in 2018. The coffee harvester was tested at 0.6 and 0.8 km h-1. Measurements were performed for stripping and harvesting efficiencies, fruit loss on the ground, unstripped fruit, defoliation with manual and mechanized harvesting, fruit removal force, and fruit ripening degree. The tests with the coffee harvester indicated a technical feasibility of 88% average harvesting efficiency, and a 15% lower defoliation than the manual harvesting. The harvesting speed of 0.8 km h-1 results in higher stripping and harvesting efficiencies, in a lower percentage of loss on the ground, and in less unstripped fruit, regardless of the evaluated clones. Fruit removal force and ripening degree influence the stripping and harvesting efficiencies and the percentage of unstripped fruit of 'Conilon' coffee.

Study on the Critical Wind Speed of a Resonant Cavity Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Driven by Driving Wind Pressure.

In order to solve the problem of continuous and stable power supply for vehicle sensors, a resonant cavity piezoelectric energy harvester driven by driving wind pressure was designed. The harvester has an effective working range of wind speed. According to the energy conservation law, the cut-in (initial) wind speed of the harvester was solved. The pressure distribution law of the elastic beam in the flow field was studied by the Fluent software package, and the results were loaded into a finite element model with a method of partition loading. The relationship between the wind speed and the maximum principal stress of the piezoelectric cantilever beam was analyzed, and the critical stress method was used to study the cut-out wind speed of the energy harvester. The results show that the cut-in wind speed of the piezoelectric energy harvester is 5.29 m/s, and the cut-out wind speed is 24 m/s. Finally, an experiment on the power generation performance of the energy harvester was carried out. The experimental results show that the cut-in and cut-out wind speeds of the piezoelectric energy harvester are 5 m/s and 24 m/s, respectively, and the best matching load is 60 kΩ. The average output power, generated by the harvester when the driving wind speed is 22 m/s, is 0.145 mW, and the corresponding power density is 1.2 mW/cm3.

A Flutter-Based Electromagnetic Wind Energy Harvester: Theory and Experiments

Wind energy harvesting is a promising way to offer power supply to low-power electronic devices. Miniature wind-induced vibration energy harvesters, which are currently being focused on by researchers in the field, offer the advantages of small volume and simple structure. In this article, an analytical model was proposed for the kinetic analysis of a flutter-based electromagnetic wind energy harvester. As a result, the critical wind speeds of energy harvesters with different magnet positions were predicted. To experimentally verify the analytical predictions and investigate the output performance of the proposed energy harvester, a small wind tunnel was built. The critical wind speeds measured by the experiment were found to be consistent with the predictions. Therefore, the proposed model can be used to predict the critical wind speed of a wind belt type energy harvester. The experimental results also show that placing the magnets near the middle of the membrane can result in lower critical wind speed and higher output performance. The optimized wind energy harvester was found to generate maximum average power of 705 μW at a wind speed of 10 m/s, offering application prospects for the power supply of low-power electronic devices. This work can serve as a reference for the structural design and theoretical analysis of a flutter-based wind energy harvester.

The Effect of Combine Harvester Speed, Threshing Cylinder Speed and Concave Clearance on Threshing Losses of Rice Crop

The Effect of Combine Harvester Speed, Threshing Cylinder Speed and Concave Clearance on Threshing Losses of Rice Crop

Evaluation of Cutting Blades Impact on Productivity and Performance of Sugar Cane Harvesting Machine

Field experiments were carried out to determine effects of cutting blade types on sugar cane mechanical harvest. The evaluation of used sugar cane harvester is carried out through four levels of forward harvesting speed of 2.4, 3.2, 4.1 and 5.2 km/h, three cutting blade types namely: smooth blades, serrated blades and fast exchange blade, and four levels of blade angles of 0, 10, 17.5 and 22.5˚ on the area of sugarcane cutting, productivity, percent of sugarcane cut stalks, percent of damage cutting blades, total losses, total cost and criterion function cost. The results concluded the following: maximum of the area of sugarcane cutting was 4522.8 m²/h and productivity of 49.6 ton/h and percent of sugar cane cut stalks of 96.1% were recorded at using serrated blades type with 17.5° tilt angle. Also, the minimum of percent of damage cutting blades was 9.7%, total losses of 1.9%, losses cost of 18.9 L.E/h and criterion function cost of 192.4 L.E/h. Finally, the performance characteristics of used machine were influenced by the investigated variables.

Enhanced low-velocity wind energy harvesting from transverse galloping with super capacitor

To improve the low-velocity wind energy extracting performance, a galloping piezoelectric energy harvester with an external super capacitor in addition to the small internal piezoelectric capacitor is designed. The electromechanical extension of the Hamilton's principle is adopted to establish the fluid-structure-electricity coupled distributed-parameter model with the Euler-Bernoulli beam assumption and quasi-steady hypothesis. Using the harmonic balance method, the approximate analytical solutions of the onset galloping speed, dynamic response and electric output of the nonlinear energy harvester are derived. Simulink simulations validate the nonlinear multiple solutions of the proposed model. The interface circuit is optimized via the electrical damping dependent of the external capacitance, inductance and resistance. The external super capacitor is chosen to satisfy the optimal electrical damping with the acceptable inductance for the power maximization. Wind tunnel experiments demonstrate that the harvested power is enhanced 450% by incorporating the super capacitor in the galloping system for low-velocity wind energy harvesting. The proposed energy harvester is able to be extended to meter scale or shrunk to millimeter scale for the field application needs.

Design of Mathematical Model of Main Working Parts of Grain Combine Harvester

In order to improve the working efficiency of the grain combine harvester, this paper decomposes the harvester into three parts: the power system, the walking system and the operating system. The paper determines the matching relationship between engine power and driving speed, corn harvesting speed, peeling speed and threshing speed. This paper determines the mathematical model of the main working parts by establishing a matching relationship. Based on the mathematical model, this paper designs the harvester simulation model by using Matlab and simulink software tools. In this paper, the effects of engine power simulation parameters on the speed, threshing and harvesting speed of the harvester in the mathematical model are studied. The results show that the harvester power increases, the walking speed of the harvester increases, the harvesting speed increases, the speed of corn peeling and threshing increases, and the loss of corn in threshing and clearing increases. The mathematical model of the harvester is very high and belongs to the large inertia system.

Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) mortality in relation to fodder harvest in agricultural landscape

Abstract In the agricultural landscape, thousands of animals are killed yearly as a result of agricultural machinery innovation, mostly because of a higher harvesting speed and wider cutting bars. Harvesting machines besides predation by red fox (Vulpes vulpes L.) on roe deer (Capreolus capreolus L.) in the intensively managed cultural landscape are the most crucial factor in fawn mortality. This article offers an evaluation of the mostly used preventive methods, which aim to drive roe deer does along with their fawns out of fodder meadows prepared for harvest in the Czech Republic. Evaluation of efficiency and effectiveness of the different methods was made based on the questionnaire survey published in a professional hunting journal. The assessment of responses from a survey was followed by a field-based investigation conducted before fodder harvesting. The devices studied for efficiency were acoustic, optical and scent deterrents in comparison to the traditional search method combined with volunteers and hunting dogs. The results show differences in the number of fawns saved per hectare. A significant difference was found only between the optical deterrent method (0.4 fawns saved per hectare) and traditional search method (0.09 fawns saved per hectare). This study found no substantial difference among various deterring devices in terms of their effectiveness in reducing the mortality of roe deer fawns. Thus, it is important to explore the innovative methods in the future that can work most effectively for saving not only deer fawns, but also other game animals in the cultural landscape.

Research of the Influence of Road Excitation on Human Body Comfort under the Harvester Working Condition

Abstract. When the harvester travels in the field, road excitation will cause low-frequency vibration within 3 Hz, which is the most sensitive frequency range of human body. In order to evaluate the influence of road excitation on the comfort feelings of the harvester driver, vibration acceleration data were collected when the combine harvester was travelling at high and low speeds on flat-soft road, flat-solid road, and rough-solid road. The vibration comfort of the harvester was evaluated by root mean square (RMS) of weighted acceleration. The results showed that the speed of harvester, road surface roughness and hardness have great effects on harvester vibration comfort. Soft road has an obvious absorption effect on the vibration at 70 Hz. The increase in the speed of harvester and road surface hardness and roughness elevates the subjective discomfort of the driver. Keywords: Combine harvester, Comfort research, Road excitation, Root mean square of weighted acceleration, Vibration test.

Can combine headers and travel speeds affect the quality of soybean harvesting operations?

ABSTRACT Assuring the quality of mechanical soybean harvesting is crucial to ensure that investment in other stages of crop production is converted into profit for the farmer. Because the quality of this operation is related to decreased losses, which may be affected by the combine header used and by the harvesting speed, the aim of the present study was to assess the quality of mechanical soybean harvesting in the Southern Cone of Rondônia, using harvesters with different combine headers and travel speeds via statistical process control. The experiment was performed during the 2015/16 harvest in an agricultural area of the municipality of Cabixi, RO, located at the geographical coordinates 13° 27’ S and 60° 41’ W. The study was designed based on the premises of the statistical process control, sampling 80 points 100 m apart. Combine header, internal, total, and cutting height losses were assessed. Quality of the harvesting process was assessed using the draper header. Travel speed had little effect on process quality. Crop losses were higher than the acceptable limit, indicating the need to improve the process.

Cotton and fiber quality in function of picker harvest speed

ABSTRACT Cotton price is determined by the quality of the fiber, which can be damaged at the time of harvest, in addition to quantitative losses of non-harvested plume. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse soil and plant losses, and the quality of cotton fiber in relation to five harvest speeds (5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 km h-1) in the spindle system (picker). The experiment was conducted in Lucas do Rio Verde, Mato Grosso, Brazil. A randomized complete block design was used on plots of 0.9 ha, with 20 plot, five speeds, and four blocks. The results showed that the studied speeds did not significantly influence losses on the soil and plant, or the quality of the cotton fiber; therefore, the highest speed may be recommended.

THE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL PASSPORT AND OPERATION PROCESS CHARTS OF GRAIN HARVESTERS

The work describes how parameters of grain crop stalk mass, combine harvester speed, coverage of swath headers and fi eld size infl uence the actual throughput of a grain harvester and the feasibility of its nominal throughput at threshing. The nominal throughput of a grain harvester is usually taken as the delivery of corn bulk in kilograms her second to a thresher with the level of grain loss of 1.5 percent and the standard moisture of grain and straw. In a production environment, the throughput of a grain harvester of the classical scheme increases by 1.45 times when the straw content in corn bulk goes down from 1.5 to 0.7 in unit fraction and decreases by 1.16 times when the straw content goes up from the standard value to 2.3. By regulatory standards the actual throughput of a grain harvester can only be 10 percent lower than its nominal throughput. When choosing harvesting strategy and tactics in the farm conditions, the technological passport of the 7 kg/s class grain harvester may be represented as a nomogram consisting of four quadrants. The procedure of using a technological passport was developed by harvesting grain crops with the yield of 1 to 2 tons per hectare by the 7 kg/s class grain harvester. According to the calculations for the normal weather conditions and the yield range mentioned above, such harvester will be fully loaded only at two-phase harvesting, threshing double swaths cut by reapers with the coverage of 10 and 6 m, and at the maximum allowable operating speed of the grain harvester. The coverage of the swath headers for the straight combine method is from 9 to 11 m, so the effi cient load of the 7 kg/s class grain harvester at maximum allowable operating speeds is achieved only at threshing grain crops with the yield capacity of over 2 tons per hectare. These fi ndings can be used to develop operation process charts for grain crop threshing in each fi eld by the straight or two-phase methods.

Harvesting olive tree using accurate vibrations generated by a robotic system

The paper presents the results of the study regarding the olive harvesting trees systems and the concept of an olive tree robot. Important is the result, namely the harvesting speed and accuracy. Mechanical and automatic harvesting methods collect more olives than the traditional methods but may damage the olive trees. The necessity of an olive tree robot is based that the agricultural industry is very complex and need a lot of attention and qualified employments but is an activity only seasonal and are hands work. The same think is in grove-olive, where necessary many workers with experience to collect olives with their hands. In this case take a lot of time to collect the entire olive grove. Our study shows that the best system to increase the production of olives is to harvest the olives trees mechanics with robots.

Pre-harvest factors influencing the quality of berries

Abstract Quality of berries is a difficult concept to describe objectively. The aim of this review is, to better define the concept of quality in berries, and summarize the main pre-harvest factors that influence quality of the fruit. Berry quality could be defined as a set of agronomic/commercial, organoleptic and nutritional qualities: the first one comprising of characters that belong to the adaptation of the plant to specific cultivation such as fruit size, plant yield, harvesting speed, and resistance to pests and diseases. Organoleptic quality is the main set of characteristics generally related to quality attributes that are recognizable through the five senses of the consumer. Finally, nutritional quality is the “hidden” quality present in berry fruits, that comprises all the macro- and micro-nutrients, vitamins and bioactive compounds. Not only are these characteristics very variable among different species, but also among different cultivars within the same species. This kind of variability is ascribed to the category of genetic factors. The adaptability of berries to different climatic conditions (different latitude, soil conditions, production cycle, light exposition, etc.) represent the environmental factor that influence fruit quality. Finally, also the so called agronomic factors, related to the cultivation systems (open field or protected or soilless cultivation, organic or conventional cultivation), fertilization, water stress and salinity, and fruit harvest, influence the final quality of the berry fruits.

Piezoelectric Power Harvesting via Acoustic-Pressure Driven by Low-Speed Wind-Force with Resonating-Tube and Wind-Collector

Wind-driven power harvestings attract attentions since their target wind speeds are quite low less than the so-called cut-in wind speed, which is generally recognized as around 3 m/s. The extant power harvestings driven by wind-induced-air-column-resonations (i.e. acoustic-pressures) are still lacking simplicity, scale flexibility and solid strategies for practical applications. Therefore, the piezoelectric power harvesters via acoustic-pressures driven by low-speedwind-forces with resonating-tubes and wind-collectors were invented so as to complement all the lacks. The wind-collector as well as the resonating-tube contributed to upraise the power harvesting density. The champion power harvesting density of 19.5 nW/dm2 could be procured at 2.3 m/s of an artificial wind and the optimal resonating-tube and wind-collector. Power harvesting proofs from the natural wind with low mean speeds down to about 0.6 m/s were successfully obtained. The cut-in wind speed of the prototype piezoelectric power harvester was found to be quite low as about 0.4 m/s, signifying its ubiquity. Finally, a multi-bundle pendant-type piezoelectric power harvester was specifically presented together with professing the solid and multiple strategies for practical applications.

Performance Evaluation and Parameter SensitivityofSpeed Bump Energy HarvesterPassed by Various Vehicles

Commonly, road bumps are used to reduce vehicle speeds thus improving safety for pedestrians. Recently, there is an increased interest to exploit road bumps in developing energy harvesting. This paper compares the vehicle suspension dynamics when pass over conventional and energy harvesting speed bumps with different speeds. Numerical simulations are based on various types of vehicles including passenger cars, buses, and trucks. Results show that at lower speeds, vehicles give better performance in case of energy harvesting speed bumps than conventional bumps and this performance is more improved for heavy duty vehicles. Additionally, the sensitivities of suspension performance and harvestable power to the speed bump energy harvester, [SBEH], parameters are investigated and addressed. This parameter sensitivity study demonstrates that SBEH mass, SBEH equivalent damping, and the maximum allowable displacement of the bump have significant effect on the suspension performance and the harvestable power. So we use also Genetic Algorithm (GA) based on multi-objective optimization techniques to search the optimal values of these significant parameters of the SBEH considering the trade-off between ride comfort, road handling, and harvested energy.

Development of combine grain yield monitor system with self-feedback function

In order to get real time grain yield information, a new kind of grain yield monitor system with error feedback correct function was developed, which was based on the first generation of photoelectric grain yield monitor system. The improved system was consisted of sensor unit, controller unit, display unit and GPS module. The sensor unit included grain volume sensor, elevator speed sensor, grain tank state sensor and unloading grain cylinder speed sensor. The model of grain mass on scraper was established based on optical principle of photoelectric diffuse reflection and grain kinematic principle. Predicted model and diffuse reflectance grain yield monitor software was embedded in the grain yield display terminal. When the elevator scraper of the combine harvester with grain passed diffuse reflectance grain volume sensor, the light path would be blocked intermittently. As a result, the corresponding pulse signal would be generated and meanwhile the elevator rotating speed sensor would output rotating speed signal. According to photoelectric principle, pulse signal was proportional to the thickness of grain on scraper. Subsequently grain yield data acquisition module converted sensor signals into standard signals. Simultaneously, grain yield information including the real-time grain yield, total yield, elevator rotating speed, combine harvester speed, harvest area, longitude and latitude would be obtained and displayed on the terminal. When combine harvester began to unload grain, the self-feedback unit started to work. According to the quantitative spiral conveyor technology, the grain volume was obtained. The unloading grain quality feedback to photoelectric grain yield monitor system calibration obtained the final grain yield. In order to verify the accuracy of the self-feedback unit, static experiment and dynamic field experiment were carried out respectively. The maximum static error was less than 3.90%. Dynamic field experiment was carried out in June, 2017. The experiment results showed that the error was less than 5.80% with self-feedback unit. Both the static experiment and dynamic field experiment indicated that the combine grain yield monitor system with self-feedback function could satisfy the practical need.

MONITORING OF SOYBEAN MECHANICAL HARVESTING AS A FUNCTION OF PLOT SHAPES

ABSTRACT: Information on harvester performance is important in the management and optimization of mechanized agricultural systems. In this sense, the aim of this study was to monitor the operation quality of soybean mechanical harvesting in different plot shapes by means of statistical process control. The harvest was carried out in an agricultural area of a farm located in Uberaba, MG, Brazil, with an experimental design based on the assumptions of statistical quality control and 18, 28, and 24 replications for irregular, rectangular, and trapezoidal plots, respectively. The variables and/or quality indicators of harvester performance were forward speed, engine speed, cylinder speed, and concave opening. The lowest variation occurred in the irregular plot for the quality indicators forward speed and engine speed of harvester. Engine speed and the concave opening of harvester were unstable for all plot shapes. Only the cylinder speed of the soybean harvester presented process stability during operation for the three plot shapes.

Performance Evaluation and Field Characterization of the Sifang Mini Rice Combine Harvester

Abstract. Performance of a Sifang mini rice combine, originally developed in China, was evaluated under local farmer field conditions in Benin. Results from field evaluation show that the combine worked satisfactorily on less dense rice fields with minimal weeds at grain moisture contents between 19.1% and 20.1% w.b. on soils with moisture content from 23% to 33% d.b. while causing no significant changes to soil physical properties. With harvesting speed ranging from 0.8 to 4.5 km/h, the harvester had a field capacity of 0.10 to 0.39 ha/h and consumed fuel of up to 11 L/ha while having track slip of 6% to 9%. Harvesting using 2- and 1-L gear offered the best efficiency for IR841 and Nerica L20 rice varieties, respectively. As harvesting speed increased, harvesting efficiency decreased and crop throughput increased irrespective of rice variety. The combine produced low mechanical grain damage with total grain loss ranging from 1.43% to 4.43% and 1.85% to 5.6% for the IR841 and Nerica L20 rice varieties, respectively. At an investment cost of US$5000 and hiring at US$10 per h, owning the mini combine harvester becomes profitable after 342 h of machine use; equivalent to approximately 133 ha of paddy field harvested at a harvesting capacity of 0.39 ha/h. Further testing of the combine under a wide range of crop and soil conditions across different agro-ecological zones and economic comparison with manual harvesting is recommended. This would offer smallholder farmers diverse options of rice harvesting mechanization to facilitate future adoption of improved technologies. Keywords: Crop throughput, Field capacity, Field efficiency, Grain loss, Mini rice combine, Sifang.

The economics of post-harvest loss: a case study of the new large soybean - maize producers in tropical Brazil

Reducing post-harvest loss (PHL) allows farmers to keep more of their crop and increases grain supplies, which are critical in a world where resources are scarce and rural developing economies struggle. While the policy goal is well understood, the micro-economics of loss are not. Little research focuses on the role managers play in reducing loss. Using economic theory and field research, we built and tested a conceptual model of farmers’ loss problem. We modelled a tradeoff where the opportunity costs of loss mitigation were sufficiently high to motivate managers to increase rather than reduce PHL. The setting was the fast growing tropical maize and soybean region of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Results showed that harvest losses of 6 % and short-haul losses of 2 % in soybean, as an opportunity cost, might be insufficient to cause farmers to be as aggressive in reducing loss as policy makers would expect. This is because delay in harvesting soybean may delay the planting of maize as a second crop (safrinha) on the same land, causing risk of loss of this valuable crop owing to drought and inhibition of pollination. Hastening of the harvest of soybean (and consequent loss) can be achieved by desiccation and increased harvesting speeds. The results provide insights, which may be applicable elsewhere, into the complexities of tropical grain production where high moisture environments, large spatial contexts and poor infrastructure promote tactics, such as those described, in order maximize the benefits of double cropping.