Compact automatic flue-cured tobacco harvester part 2: harvesting accuracy and effect on leaf quality

摘要

A new prototype harvester was operated at different velocities speeds with different varieties of tobacco and in order to determine the harvesting accuracy, the ratio of unharvested leaves to all tobacco leaves were monitored. The analysis ofachieved harvesting accuracy showed comparable difference among three speeds (1.6, 2.0 and 2.4 km/h). The tests demonstrated that the harvester could be used for five varieties of tobacco although there were some differences in harvesting accuracy amongvarieties. Operating efficiency demonstrated that the machine could reduce harvesting time by 65.6% compared with conventional harvesting. The experiments were conducted on 6.4 hectares. On sunny days there was little difference between the two methods in terms of quality of harvested leaves. A new leaf binder for mechanically harvested leave for curing were also developed. Mechanical harvesting on rainy days produced leaves that were of labor quality in appearance compared to those harvested manually.