New design of roller separation line and its effect on the separation of hop matter
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Engineering, Department of
Agricultural Machines, Kamýcká 129, CZ165 21 Praha 9 - Suchdol, Czech Republic
*Correspondence: krupicka@tf.czu.cz
Abstract:
This article deals with the roller conveyor which constitutes a part of a machine line to separate the hops harvested from low trellises. Various parameters affecting the right operation of this roller conveyor are examined. In the last season a model of roller conveyor designed and constructed for this purpose was subject to experimental verification with the objective of integrating it in the actual line. Dependency of hop matter falling through on the gap size between rollers was examined. They were standard, commonly used rollers.
In 2015 rollers with a different diameter and different profile of metal welded collars were designed and produced. The new construction allows for reducing the gap between rollers up to 20 mm. As compared to the former solution including rollers of 60 mm in diameter, this one constitutes a difference of 28 mm.
The measurements in the season of 2015 were conducted using these new rollers and there were two parameters to examine. They were the gap size between rollers and rotation frequency of the rollers. The measurements were carried out using a hop matter sample taken from low trellises. The dependency of the hop matter falling through was being examined for 3 gaps (28, 24 and 20 mm) between rollers and for three rotation frequencies of the rollers. The measurements revealed that with a setting resulting in the smallest possible gap between rollers (20 mm) by up to 15% more leaves can be separated, compared to the rollers of 80 mm in diameter, and by approx. 60% more leaves compared to the former solution including the rollers of 60 mm in diameter. Furthermore it was found that a change in
Key words:
hops, roller conveyor., separating machine