Butterbur Peeling Machine Development

摘要

Butterbur (Petasites japonicus), a perennial plant of asteraceae, is a native Japanese wild vegetable. Tha cultivated area was 92% as large as that in 2012 because butterbur cultivation requires much time for harvestini and processing. Moreover, the number of farmers is decreasing because of aging. Therefore, Butterbu cultivation is being sought to introduce efficient cultivation methods and to improve processing work.Peeling /'; one aspect of processing work for butterbur. Butterbur peeling usuallydone by manual labor requires much work time, and workers' trained skill. For that reason, we developed a prototype butterbur peeling machine to increasi shipments by efficient processing work. We investigated basic characteristics of butterbur shape andpeelinc accuracy.A prototype butterbur peeling machine comprised an air compressor, an air nozzle, flexible rotary axis, and e positioning slide. Butterbur held at the base of plant by flexible rotary axis was peeled using an air blaster. Eacl butterbur had different height, weight and plant diameter. Therefore, the prototype butterbur peeling machine must have different mechanics to accommodate the various plant characteristics. Butterbur can be peeled witl force of 3.14N because of the hardness difference between outside and inner fibers. They can be broken a 12.91N in a vertical direction. Butterbur processing must be reduced by 12.7-17.9% in total weight by peeling The prototype peeling machine achieved best results when setting the air nozzle at 30°, the positioning slide a 5 cm, the amount of airflow at 152.62 Umin, and using an ALVA2 air nozzle.