Development of a Pepper Removal Mechanism for a Red-Pepper Harvester (I)- Size Reduction of the Pepper Removal Mechanism and Improvement of Pepper Recovery Ratio -

고추수확기의 탈실장치 개발 (I) - 탈실장치의 소형화와 회수율의 제고 -

A pepper harvester using a pair of counter rotating helically wound cylinders as a pepper removal mechanism has been developed. Pepper harvesting by machines under the customary cultivation practice was expected to lower land productivity, that most farmers were concerned about. As one way to compensate for loss in land productivity by machine harvest, experts on pepper cultivation suggested change of both varieties and plant density per area. From the view of machine design, their suggestion implied that distance between rows should be narrower and height of the pepper removal mechanism could be shorter. Experiments to improve perfect pepper recovery ratio and to reduce size of the pepper removal mechanism was accomplished. In order to be a economically feasible harvester, minimum pepper recovery ratio was required to be greater or equal to 80%. The research goal was achieved by both reducing the diameter of the wire-helices from 30 cm to 18 cm and increasing rotational speed of the wire-helices up to 425 rpm. The best perfect pepper recovery ratio was 82.3%. Validity of experiment design and interpretation on statistical analysis were discussed. To understand the pepper removal mechanism properly, a pepper removal theory based physics was judged to be necessary.