Indicators of а fruit detacher with non-symmetricangular oscillations at removing tomato fruits

摘要

The main qualitative and quantitative indicators of a newly developed fruit detacher with non-symmetric angular oscillationshave been investigated at inertial removal of fruits of table tomato varieties from stems. The detacher removes over95% of the fruits of examined tomato varieties ‘Tomsk’ and ‘Tobray’, without damaging them mechanically at frequencyof oscillations from 10.8 to 13.3 Hz and initial elastic moment of the clutch from 0 to 2.0 Nm. The detacher achievesthe productivity for plants from 1.554 to 11.650 kg·s–1 and the productivity for fruits of 0.827 to 6.921 kg·s–1 for eachmeter of its working width. The best qualitative indicators were observed at the productivity range from 2.460 to 4.621kg·s–1. During operation, the device allows smooth adjustment of both number of impacts and speed of moving plantstowards the exit, which distinguishes it from existing shaker drums. The developed fruit detacher can be integratedinto tomato harvesters and to be tested for inertial removal of the fruits of other crops.