P-PM13 : Improvement of Power Cutting Module for Advanced Small Chinse Cabbage Harvest Machine

Development of automatic chinese cabbage harvester is required to mechanization of dry-field farming. However, current commercial chinese cabbage harvester is large machines which are mainly improved from combine or attached to tractor, that is, conventional chinese cabbage harvester is not suitable for the Korean farming environments. To solve this problem, our group has developed small-sized chinese cabbage harvester. In previous studies, however, due to the difference between the transfer belt and the running speed causing slip of the power belt, the pulled chinese cabbage could not be transported in an appropriate position, resulting in the unstable cutting of chinese cabbages. Therefore, in this study, we focused on the improvement of transportation belts and cutters in the cutting module to solve this problem. To reduce the power losses, an AC motor was installed in the cutting module to directly operate the transport belt and cutting blade, and a generator is additionally mounted on the vehicles for power supplying of AC motor drive and a control distribution panel is installed for speed control. Cutting blades with two left and right blades running at the center of the transportation route were installed to improve the chinese cabbage sticking to the shaft. In field experiments, the success rate of chinese cabbage cutting into the right position was 93%, but the rate in which chinese cabbages were inserted into the cutting machine well was only 53% during the cutting process. The improvement of drawing and the replacement of transfer belt causing more friction are expected in the further study. The improvement of cutting module will facilitate the commercialization of Chinese cabbage harvester, contributing the mechanization of dry-field farming.