Vol. 12, Issue 5 (2023)

Author(s):
Kawale Nagendra, Ramappa KT, Anantachar M, Praveen Jholgikar, Veerangouda M and Prakash KV

Abstract:
The mechanical harvester for harvesting of ginger crop was developed and the effect of design parameters on harvesting of ginger was studied in this experiment. The important components of the developed ginger harvester include the Digging unit and the Conveyor unit. The design parameters of digging unit (blade geometries) viz., straight blade, inverted V blade and crescent blade at three rake angles of 15, 20 and 25 degree and at three forward speeds of 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 km h^-1 were considered for evaluation of digging unit. The best operating conditions were observed at a forward speed of 2.5 km h^-1 with a rake angle of 20 degree for inverted V type blade. Also the performance of conveyor unit was conducted using different operational parameters viz., angle of elevator (15, 20 and 25 degree) and speed ratio of elevator (1.0, 1.25 and 1.5). The best operational condition was observed at a speed ratio of 1.25 with 20 degree angle of elevator. The combined effect of these two units on the harvesting of ginger crop resulted with a best harvesting performance in terms of minimum draft (2431.57 N) requirement, maximum digging efficiency (99.20%), least damage to ginger rhizome (1.0%) and less fuel consumption (4.72 Lh^-1).