General Design Of Small Potato Digger And Performance Research Of Key Parts

In recent years, potato industry has rapid developed. Whereas the development level of potato harvester is lower, especially Low mechanization level. Nonmatched machine type with existing power facilities, low level of basic theory research, design and manufacture have been paid more and more attention. Thus, a small potato digger suitable for small-sized walking tractor and stickiness soil was designed in this paper. Based on the research of the current status of potato digger’s key parts, including digging parts and separating parts, the theory analysis and calculation of these two parts were carried out. And the design was completed by the methods of three-dimensional modeling, virtual prototype dynamic simulation. The main research findings include:With the assistance of 3-D modeling software Pro/ENGINEER and basis on the analysis of planting criterion, calculation of digging and separating parts, the design and modeling of the whole digger were completed.The digging part with the breadth of 500mm, working face obiquity of 18°-25°was designed. Its parts were modeled and assembled by Pro/ENGINEER software, and the statics analysis of digging shovel parts was developed used finite element model Mechnica in Pro/ENGINEER. By the optimization of structure and parameters, the maximum stress of the via holes in the shovel tablets and seat decreased to below 165MPa, the stress of other parts were about below 66MPa, and the maximum displacement decreased to 1.7mm, which meet the technlolgy requirement.To make the small potato digger adapt to the clay soil efficiently, a new kind of ellipse separating part was designed. The motion of roller was simulated used Mechanism model of Pro/ENGINEER software, then the spread of axles was determined. The virtual prototype of separating part was set up by the multi-body dynamics software Adams, and the motion and dynamics simulation of the interaction system of potato and separating parts was developed. Then the key parameters including rotational speed of roller, distance between rods, geometric shape and spread of axles of ellipse separating parts were determined.