Plucking Machine Research Articles

Pengendalian Kualitas Produk Griller Menggunakan Failure Mode Effect and Analysis (FMEA) dan Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

A company engaged in the slaughterhouse of boiler chickens and one of its products is griller, which is chicken that is cut in a halal manner and packaged in the form of a whole carcass. Based on daily reports, the number of defects found in griller products shows a percentage of up to 30%. The purpose of this study is to identify the types of defects found in grillers so that alternative improvements can be determined. This research uses the Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) method to identify the most dominant types of defects in the product and find the causes. The highest defects from the FMEA results are processed by the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) method to provide improvement proposals so as to reduce the number of existing defects. The results of this study show that the most dominant type of defect is feathers remaining on the carcass with the highest RPN value of 175. The defect of feathers still remaining on the carcass is caused by workers who do not follow the SOP correctly, the changing size of raw materials, and rubber. The plucking machine is worn and loose, the settings of the plucking machine are loose, the temperature of the scalder tends to drop, the inspection in the process is not correct, there is no information on how to operate the machine, the raw materials are not uniform, and the working environment temperature is high and noisy.

Uji Kinerja Mesin Petik Pucuk Teh (Tea Harvester) Tipe TS120L Pada Lahan Berbukit Dengan Kemiringan 40-60

The quantity and quality of tea products were determined by the activity of harvesting tea leaves. The performance of the picking process was influenced by the characteristics of the tea garden land. PT. Candi Loka has hilly tea gardens with slope variations up to 60o. The purpose of this research is to observe the performance of the tea picking machine TS120L on garden land with a slope of 40-60o. Parameters observed in this activity include data on total picking time, plucking speed, plucking machine width, picking area, weight of plucked tea and fuel usage. The obtained data were analyzed to obtain the value of field capacity, efficiency of plucking performance, fuel consumption and analyzed descriptively. The results showed that the average value of theoretical field capacity ha/hour, average actual field capacity 0,14 ha/hour, average efficiency 73,68 %, average actual material capacity 1347 kg/ha and average fuel consumption 1,3 liter/hour. In general, the hilly land with a slope of 40- 60o decrease the performance of the tea picking machine TS120L

Efisiensi Kinerja dan Hasil Panen Teh Menggunakan Gunting dan Mesin pada Beragam Kemiringan Lahan

<p><em>Tea leaf plucking is an important activity that can determine the quantity and quality of tea production. Tea plantations characteristically have variations of slopes that affect the performance of the picking process. This study aimed to analyze the performance efficiency of tea plucking activities using plucking machines and scissors. Field data were collected from several blocks in the South Gambung and North Gambung afdeling. Data collected consisted of the elevation of the place, the slope of the land, the plucking area, plucking time, the number of pluckers, the plots length of the plucking activity, the width of the plots, and the harvested tea's weight. The data collected were processed into field capacity and tea plucking performance efficiency, which were then analyzed descriptively. Results showed that the slope of the land has an effect on work efficiency of 3.00%-8.68%. The effective and theoretical field capacity of tea plucking machines is 0.14 hectares per hour and 0.20 hectares per hour, respectively, while the scissors is 0.015 hectares per hour and 0.020 hectares per hour. The quality of tea harvested with machines that meet the requirements is 44.10%, better than scissors harvested, which is only 28.09%.</em></p>

Developing a guiding and growth status monitoring system for riding-type tea plucking machine using fully convolutional networks

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the most popular beverage crops worldwide. As tea production is labor-intensive, riding-type tea plucking machines have been employed to improve harvest efficiency. High level of operating skills are essential to maneuver these machines. Improper operation may cause damage to tea plants and reduce the quality of harvested tea leaves. Besides harvest, monitoring the growth status of tea canopies is another essential task of tea plantation management. Monitoring conducted through conventional manual observation is time consuming. Therefore, this study attempted to solve these two issues by developing a system that guided an operator to steer a riding-type tea plucking machine in real-time and provided growth status of tea plants after each scouting trip. Fully convolutional networks (FCNs) and image processing techniques were applied to develop the guiding subsystem. This study compared two FCNs, namely FCN-8 s and ENet. The results showed that ENet outperformed FCN-8 s in generating a guiding line for the operator. Statistical analysis indicated that, with the guiding subsystem, the deviation between the driving direction and tea row center was significantly reduced. The guiding subsystem also could detect obstacles on the tea row where it was operated on. When in operation, the riding-type tea plucking machine was used as a platform to collect images of tea canopies for tea plantation management. The monitoring subsystem provided a graphical user interface consisting of a route recording, a growth status map, a canopy image of tea plants, and growth status ratings of the tea plants. FCN-8 s performed better than ENet in quantifying the growth status of tea plants, with a mean IU of 0.964 and a mean accuracy of 0.989.

Salmonella prevalence and persistence in industrialized poultry slaughterhouses

Salmonella contamination sources and transmission routes were studied in 5 Belgian poultry slaughterhouses. Samples from the slaughter and cutting line after cleaning and disinfection were collected, as well as neck skin samples and thighs during slaughter of the first flock. In total, 680 swab and water samples were taken from the slaughter line before slaughter. In all slaughterhouses, Salmonella was notwithstanding cleaning and disinfection still isolated from the slaughter line before start of activities. The prevalence of Salmonella in the plucking area was 10.4% (38/365) (hanging area: 5.0%, scalding tank: 5.8%, plucking machine: 17.0%); in the evisceration room, 1.5% (2/138); and in the cutting area, 2.0% (3/149). No Salmonella (0/28) was found in samples from the chilling line. On neck skin samples taken from the various lines, Salmonella prevalence was 16.1% (48/299) after plucking, 16.0% (48/300) after evisceration, 23.3% (70/300) after chilling; on thighs, prevalence was 10.0% (24/240). Nine Salmonella serotypes were identified of which Salmonella Infantis was the most common serovar (53.8%), especially in slaughterhouse A. Two contamination causes were identified; first, although all flocks had an official Salmonella negative status, this was in one case incorrect and led to an enormous contamination of the neck skins of the flock and the slaughterline (i.e., cooling water). Second, molecular typing revealed cross-contamination from flocks slaughtered 1 d before sampling. Salmonella was apparently not always eliminated by the cleaning and disinfection process and able to contaminate the carcasses of the first slaughtered flock. In conclusion, the results of this study provided practical insights for poultry production to further improve their Salmonella control, for example, Salmonella status determination closer to the slaughter date, to adapt cleaning and disinfection protocols especially for critical machinery and better hygienic designed equipment.

Design and experiments of 4CJ-1200 self-propelled tea plucking machine

As agricultural labor is decreasing, famous tea production is nearly hard to sustain and is getting more and more expensive in China. To improve the mechanization of tea plucking, this paper designs a self-propelled track-type tea plucking machine that integrates mechanic, hydraulic and electronics. The main parameters of chassis were optimized based on conditions of tea garden. And, three different kinds of cutter blades were designed and analyzed about vibration performance with finite element software. Also, a rigid-flex mixed motion model was established. Based on the model and plots, it is explicit that: 1) the blades move in a sine law; 2) the blades take a symmetrical deform from middle to end while moving; 3) the deformation increases along the blade from the center to sides. The single factor experiment revealed that both travel speed and speed ratio of cutting and travelling had a significant effect on quality indexes (integrity rate, unpicking rate, stubble unevenness) of plucked tea leaf. By universal rotary combination experiment of quadratic regression, the regression equations of three indexes about two experimental factors were established. And, the comprehensive optimization of three indexes was conducted with software Design expert. The optimal operating parameters of machine are as follow: travel speed is 0.41 m/s, speed ratio of cutting and travelling is 1.06; prediction of three indexes are that integrity rate could be reach to 78.26%, unpicking rate reduced to 0.82%, stubble unevenness reduced to 1.30 mm. The results of verification experiment are that: integrity rate could be reach to 77.41%, unpicking rate reduced to 0.87%, stubble unevenness reduced to 1.23 mm. These test indexes that are very close to the predicted values, all surpass the requests specified in the standard of tea plucking with machine. In all, the optimized parameter set is indeed synthetically optimal one that enables the wide use of this tea plucking machine, which can be used in the tea garden that has a lengthways slope less than 18°, a crosswise slope less than 20°, and a height of tea trees between 50-120 cm. From above, the tea plucking machine investigated in this paper provides an effective solution to present tea picking problem that is the bottleneck of tea industry. Further studies need to do for making this machine more automated and intelligent. Keywords: agricultural machine, tea, harvesting, reciprocating cutter, model, design, experiment, optimization DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20211406.5519 Citation: Han Y, Xiao H R, Song Z Y, Chen Q M, Ding W Q, Mei S. Design and experiments of 4CJ-1200 self-propelled tea plucking machine. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2021; 14(6): 75–84.

Automatic sorting of fresh tea leaves using vision‐based recognition method

AbstractMechanical tea harvesting using plucking machines is highly efficient, but harvested raw fresh tea leaves (FTLs) are always low quality because they contain a mixture of old leaves and leaf debris. To address this problem, this study developed an automatic sorting machine with a vision‐based recognition method to extract high‐quality FTLs from plucked raw FTLs. First, the raw FTLs were separated one by one after passing through three sequential conveyor belts with increasing speed, and were then classified into four grades using a vision‐based recognition method. Finally, the FTLs were blown by air nozzles into collection boxes according to their specific grade. In the recognition method, the shape‐based feature of each FTL is extracted by establishing the FTL's topological structure, and the support vector machine model is used for classification. The experimental results revealed that the vision‐based recognition method performed satisfactorily with an accuracy rate of 94% and precision rate of 85%. The sorting success rate and efficiency of the automatic sorting machine were approximately 80% and 15 kg hr−1, respectively. The results indicate that the developed automatic sorting machine can effectively and efficiently sort raw FTLs, which may improve the profitability and promote the automation of tea processing.

Gender dan Mekanisasi: Pengalaman Pekerja Perempuan Berpartisipasi dalam Kelompok Petik Mesin di Perkebunan Teh Gambung, Jawa Barat

Mechanization in the tea harvesting process commonly leads to gender imbalance, as male workers receive more benefit than female. However, this phenomenon does not the case in Gambung Tea Plantation. Female participation in the machine harvesting is high as they become the operator of tea plucking machines. This phenomenon is worth to study in particular to explore female workers’ personal experience in mechanical tea plucking. This research applies descriptive qualitative method with phenomenology approach. Female and male machine picker becomes the main subject in this study. Primary data were collected through observation, documentation, interviews and Focused Group Discussion with female and male tea plucker. Triangulation techniques were applied to ensure data validity. This study suggests that the mechanization process in Gambung Tea Plantation has created a new gender division of labour where male and female work together in a team to operate the machine. Female workers show quality of work better than male worker. Amidst the efforts of female workers to participate in the mechanization there are risks and constraints for them, such as less-gender friendly equipment, lack of access and control to resources, cultural norms, values in the society.

Analysis of mechanical properties for tea stem using grey relational analysis coupled with multiple linear regression

To improve the picking quality of tea plucking machine, the relationship between mechanical properties of tea stem and their influence factors was studied. Tea variety of Zhongcha 108 was selected as test sample to analyze the grey correlations of stem segment number, stem diameter, stem inter-node distance, moisture content, fracture deflection, moment of inertia, young's modulus, hemicellulose content, cellulose content, lignin content to mechanical properties (bending and shearing strength). Further, multiple parameter optimization and model establishment were performed using partial least squares regression (PLSR), principal component analysis (PCA) + multiple linear regression (MLR), grey relational analysis (GRA) + MLR. The results showed that the cellulose content, bending strength, shearing strength, stem diameter and moment of inertia generally increased with stem segment number. For bending and shearing strength, GRA (0.6) + MLR method was suitable to establish the model. The values of adjusted Rc2 and RMSEC of bending strength were 0.8634 and 3.3264 N, and these values of shearing strength were 0.9730 and 0.2573 N. Besides, adjusted Rp2 values of bending and shearing strength were 0.9443 and 0.9125, RMSEP values were 2.8580 N and 0.7211 N, respectively. The GRA-MLR model is accurate and effective method to investigate the mechanical properties of tea stem for designing a suitable cutting equipment.

Sequential Transmission of Salmonella in the Slaughtering Process of Chicken in Korea.

Salmonella is one of the most common foodborne pathogens worldwide. Salmonella infections in humans are mainly associated with consumption of poultry products contaminated with this foodborne pathogen. Therefore, strict sanitary measures are necessary to control Salmonella contamination during the slaughtering process of poultry. The objective of this study was to determine the occurrence and transmission of Salmonella at a series of steps in the slaughtering process of chicken. A total of 601 samples were collected from a series of slaughtering steps (10 sampling sites) of 26 chicken slaughterhouses throughout Korea. Salmonella was isolated from samples and its distribution was analyzed along the slaughtering process. Isolates from each sampling site were tested for susceptibility to 15 antibiotics by the broth microdilution method. They were also genotypically characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Salmonela was isolated from 168 out of 601 samples. Sixteen serotypes were identified while six isolates were untypable. Salmonella enterica serovars Montevideo (n = 29) and Virchow (n = 27) were the most common serotypes out of 119 nonredundant isolates. Relatively high contamination rates of Salmonella were found in shackles (75.0%), feathers near plucking machine (68.5%), and feces from crates (44.0%). Twenty-three antibiotic resistance patterns were recognized and 40 (33.6%) isolates were resistant to five or more antibiotics. The same serotypes of Salmonella were distributed along the slaughtering process of each Salmonella-positive slaughterhouse. Most of those isolates belonging to the same serotype had identical or closely related PFGE profiles. They also shared common antibiotic resistance patterns. Overall findings of this study indicated that Salmonella were sequentially transmitted through the chicken slaughtering process. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This study provides useful information on the distribution and transmission of Salmonella serotypes through the chicken slaughtering process. Overall findings indicated the need for routine microbiological monitoring along the slaughtering process. This study also showed that on-farm control of Salmonella is needed to obtain Salmonella-free chicken carcasses.

Development of Navigation System for Tea Field Machine Using Semantic Segmentation

Labor shortage is a critical issue in most of industries, especially in agricultural production. In recent year, riding-type tea plucking machine was imported to provide a relatively high-efficient solution for tea harvesting. However, high-level driving skill is essential. Improper operation may cause damage on tea trees and also lead to mechanical failure. A real-time image-based navigation system may provide an automatic choice to mitigate the difficulties. In this study, deep neural network architectures were applied to semantic segmentation to derive the contours of the tea rows and identify the obstacles in the field scene. Performance of four models including 8s-, 16s-, 32s- of the fully convolutional networks (FCN) and ENet were compared. Considering the overall performance, ENet outperformed other models with the mean intersection over unit (mean IU) of 0.734, the mean accuracy of 0.941, and the inference time of 0.176 s. Furthermore, Hough transform was introduced to obtain the guidelines based on the classification. The average bias of angles and distance were 6.208° and 13.875 pixels, respectively. The preliminary result showed the feasibility of using the developed navigation system for field application. To achieve higher precision, images that cover a diverse scenario in the field were being collected and trained in future work.

MANUFACTURE AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF POULTRY PLUCKER SUITABLE FOR SMALL FARMS

A study was carried out to manufacture and evaluate of a poultry feather plucking machine to select appropriate operational parameters. The performance evaluation tests were conducted under different factors such as, machine drum rotary speeds of 240, 340, 440 and 560 rpm (6.4, 9.07, 11.74 and 14.95 m/ sec.), scalding times of chicken of 30, 60 and 90 sec and number of machine fingers of 72, 90 and 108. The results show that, the highest average plucking efficiency of 91.4 % was obtainable with machine rotary speed of 240 rpm, scalding time of 30 seconds and number of machine fingers of 108. The lowest average was 43.73 % at the speed of 560 rpm and scalding time of 90 seconds. In general, the results revealed that, the machine plucking efficiency decreased with an increase in machine speed and scalding time. Generally it can be said that, the machine rotary speed, scalding time and number of machine fingers plays an important role in improving the de-feathering. The operationcost of thepoultry feather plucking machinewas 0.3 LE. kg /h, this means that, the operationcost for chicken ( 2 kg) was 0.6 LE., thepoultry feather plucking machine reduce 2.40 LE for each chicken as compared with the price of the operationcost of thepoultry feather plucking in the chicken ship.

A Study of Tea Pluckers’ Perception on the Introduction of Tea Plucking Machines in James Finlay’s Kenya

This study sought to assess the perception of tea pluckers on the introduction of tea plucking machines in James Finlay’s Kenya. The research was a case study of one of the major tea industry players; James Finlay’s Kenya Ltd. The target populations were all the tea estates in James Finlay’s (K) Ltd in Kericho County. James Finlay’s has a total of 13 Tea estates. There are a total of 10,262 tea pluckers in the company. A sample of five estates was considered and a sample of 20% of tea pluckers in these estates was taken for the study. A representative group according to Mugenda and Mugenda is one that is at least 10% of the population of interest. The above sample was therefore representative. Data was collected using structured questionnaires and interview methods. The data collected was supplemented with available literature review on the subject of study. The response from cross-functional sample group was analysed using descriptive statistical techniques in form of frequency distribution tables, percentages, pie charts, and computer packages. The study found that the tea pluckers viewed the introduction of the machines negatively; they interpreted it as a way of rendering them obsolete and eventually retrenching them. They therefore did not fully support its implementation

Population Genetic Structure of QoI-Resistant Pestalotiopsis longiseta Isolates Causing Tea Gray Blight

Resistance to the quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) fungicides in the tea gray blight-causing fungus Pestalotiopsis longiseta is a serious problem in Japanese tea cultivation. We conducted a population genetic analysis of QoI-resistant P. longiseta isolates on the Makinohara Plateau, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan's largest tea-growing area, to elucidate the disease's epidemiology and the spread of QoI resistance. Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) analysis of 1,083 isolates from 395 fields collected from 2009 to 2012 detected 42 ISSR types, designated as PL01 to PL42. A total of 18, seven, and 38 ISSR types were detected in highly resistant, moderately resistant, and sensitive isolates, respectively. No distinct phylogenetic relationship corresponding to QoI sensitivity or sampling location was observed. No annual changes in the population genetic structure of highly resistant isolates were observed during the study period. A different ISSR type was predominant among QoI-resistant isolates in each region. Analysis of molecular variance revealed significant genetic differentiation in populations of highly resistant isolates among regions (FCT = 0.213) and farmers (FCT = 0.071). Consequently, we speculate that QoI-resistant P. longiseta strains occurred in a number of clonal lineages and spread by both natural and artificial transmission, such as rain splash and plucking machines, throughout each region on the Makinohara Plateau.

The performance test of plucking machine type 120 at plucking of assamica tea

The rate of increase tea cost production in several tea fields could not be offered by the rate of increase selling price. The fact that the cost of plucking machine is lower than manual plucking has attracted the interest and attention of tea smallholder to change from manual plucking to plucking machine. The plucking machine which were imported from japan was not designed for assamica tea in Indonesia. In order to improving performance of plucking machine, the plucking machine need to be designed with support from the field and  appropriate machine. The aim of this trial was to test the performance of the plucking machine type-120 at plucking of assamica tea with 120 cm of spacing between rows. The plucking type used was medium plucking and kept the Kepel leaves (k +0) in the middle of the bushes using plucking method supported by the garden and the appropriate plucking machine type-120. Results obtained from the test were: (1) The using of plucking machine type-120 with medium plucking, kept the Kepel leaves (k +0), and controlled plucking height did not cause a decrease in plant health, production as well as quality of the shoots. (2) Field work capacity of plucking machine was 1.19 ha/day with work efficiency of 58.2%. (3) The ratio of plucking machine was 0.30/ha with fuel ratio of 0.33 litres/ha. The performance output of the plucking machine could be reached 224 kg/plucker as compared to only 24 kg/plucker when done manually.

Developing Situations of Tea Plucking Machine

To acquire the developing trend and ways of mechanization of tea plucking, with analyzing the developing backgrounds and situations of tea plucking machine both at home and abroad, this paper obtains the conclusion that there are several countries that have conducted a lot of studies on tea plucking machine, such as Japan, England, France, India, Australia and Argentina. Among others, Japan goes ahead, where lots of researches have been conducted in the highest developing level. The article also analyses the reason why China has a poor mechanization of tea plucking and points out existing problems. Finally, some advices and measures for developing Chinese domestic mechanization of tea plucking are given.

The influence of plectrum thickness on the radiated sound of the guitar

It is generally thought that the human ear is very sensitive to subtle changes in sounds. In the context of musical instruments, one important aspect to study is how much the physical attributes of any given instrument have to differ so that a human can perceive a difference in the produced sound. In the case of the guitar, it is unquestionable that when the string is plucked at a particular position, some of the differences on the produced sound of the instrument are introduced by changes in how the player plucks the string (playing technique). However, given the wide variety of plectrum types, materials and thicknesses, it is hypothesised that the player is not the only parameter that influences the sound, but that the plectrum itself plays a significant role in the sound production. This paper presents a study whereby a guitar is played with three plectra of different thicknesses with an artificial plucking machine. The radiated sound is recorded, and subsequently analysed using the program SNDAN. Physical and psychoacoustical attributes of the sound are calculated from the resulting analysis. A thorough comparison of these results obtained for the three different plectra is presented and discussed.

Impact of the slaughter line contamination on the presence of Salmonella on broiler carcasses

The aim of the study was to assess the impact of Salmonella present on the slaughter line before processing on broiler carcass contamination during processing. Three Belgian broiler slaughterhouses were each visited twice. Samples were taken from the slaughter line after the cleaning and the disinfection process and before slaughter of the first flock. During the slaughter of the first flock, feathers and neck skins were collected at various points of the slaughter process. Swab samples were also taken from the crates in which the birds were transported. In two slaughterhouses, the slaughter line was contaminated with Salmonella before the onset of slaughter, especially the shackles, conveyer belt and the plucking machine in the dirty zone. During slaughter, the carcasses of the first Salmonella-free flock became contaminated with the same strains as isolated previously from the slaughter line. Contamination of the slaughter line with Salmonella leads to carcass contamination. Implementation of logistic slaughter is only successful when the cleaning and disinfection process completely eliminates the Salmonella contamination of the slaughter line. Only if this is achieved, will the slaughter of Salmonella-free flocks result in the absence of Salmonella on the carcasses after slaughter.

What Limits the Number of Tītī (Puffinus griseus) Harvested by Rakiura Māori

Māori continue a centuries old harvest of tītī chicks (sooty shearwater, Puffinus griseus) on islands adjacent to Rakiura (Stewart Island). This study measured time limits on the number of Tītītaken each day from Putauhinu Island. In the first period of the harvest (“nanao”) the chicks are extracted from the breeding burrows during daytime. In the second period of harvest (“rama”) the chicks are caught at night after they have emerged from their nesting burrows. Capture rate is much higher during the rama than the nanao. More time is spent processing (plucking, cutting-up, gutting, and packing) chicks during rama than the nanao because of a 1.3–1.7 increase in the number of chicks caught. Recently introduced motorized plucking machines decrease the time required to pluck each chick and make plucking less physically demanding and less painful. However, motorized pluckers did not increase the number of chicks harvested on Putauhinu. Other social limits may control harvest intensity and influence sustainability of muttonbirding.

Modern technology and customary use of wildlife: the harvest of Sooty Shearwaters by Rakiura Maori as a case study

Rakiura Maori (a tribe of indigenous people in New Zealand) continue a centuries-old customary use of Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus, titi, muttonbird) chicks from islands adjacent to Rakiura (Stewart Island). Some muttonbirders pluck chicks by hand, while others have recently changed to a plucking machine. We compared traditional and modern processing methods to see if new technology stands to increase the efficiency, size and cost effectiveness of harvest. On average, chicks were plucked 6 seconds quicker with a machine, which could potentially increase the catch by up to 4%. Innovation by using wax rather than water to remove down left after plucking saved muttonbirders 29–97 minutes per day, potentially allowing up to a 15% increase in the number of chicks harvested. Both wax and plucking machines increased costs, which led to a modest financial gain from using wax, but a net loss from using a plucking machine. Modern technologies have been introduced mainly for convenience and to ease labour in this customary use of wildlife. New technology may erode traditional skills, but does not necessarily pose a risk to the sustainability of a resource. Financial investment in harvest technologies might provide an incentive to increase harvest levels, but could equally provide an incentive to manage for sustainable use. Preservation lobbies are not justified in presuming that new technologies will always threaten wildlife traditionally used by indigenous people.