• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.163-168
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• 2010

With income growth and "well-being" trends, sales of corn has been increased recently. Corns are processed at processing facilities on the main production site. Corn processing steps include removing bract, steaming, vacuum packing, and storing. To replace manual corn bract removing, some bract removing machines were imported and used. However, the machines were abandoned shortly, because of high damaging ratio of corns. In this research, factors of successful bract removing was studied with rotating rollers and air-injection nozzles to develop corn bract removing system. The test device was composed of a cylindrical roller, an air spray nozzle, a regulator, and a motor. Designing factors were roller type, diameter of air spraying nozzle, spraying angle, and spraying pressure. The measured factors were bract removing rate and damaging rate. It was found that optimum cylindrical roller surface shape was cylindrical roller and linear grove roller. This roller shape produced lowest damaging rate. Test results of the efficacy of preprocessing showed that the air spraying after preprocessing produced highest performance. The rotational speed and inclination of the roller didn't affect the bract removing performance. Optimum injection angle of the air jet nozzle was $70^{\circ}$. To increase bract removing rate and to reduce corn damage, required injection pressure and injection nozzle diameter were decided to less than 0.4 MPa and 2.5 mm, respectively. More than 3 times of nozzle passing produced good bract removing performance and there were no significant difference between the number of passing times.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.285-295
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• 2018

Purpose: The aim of this study is to develop a three-wheel riding cultivator for improving the performance of the current four-wheel riding cultivators in the market. Methods: A prototype three-wheel riding cultivator with the rated power of 15.5-kW, a primary hydrostatic and a two-speed selective gear transmission shifts, front/rear three-wheel drive, a hydraulic wheel tread adjustment, and the mid-section attachment of the major implements was designed and constructed. Its specifications and basic performance are investigated. Results: The maximum speeds of the prototype at the low and high stages were measured to be approximately 7.31, and 11.29 km/h in forward travel, respectively, and approximately 3.60, and 6.37 km/h in rearward travel, respectively. The minimum ground clearance is shown to be 670 mm. The rotating speeds of the power takeoff (PTO) shaft at the low and high stages are shown to be approximately 795 and 1,140 rpm, respectively. The tread of the rear wheels, the minimum radius of turning, and the maximum lifting height of the parallel link device are measured to be within 1,320-1,720 mm, 2.80 m, and 390 mm, respectively. Approximately 25.3% and 74.7% of the total weight of the prototype are distributed in the front and rear wheels on flat ground, respectively. When the tread of rear wheels increased from 1,320 to 1,720 mm, the left and right static lateral overturning angles increased from $33.4^{\circ}$ to $39.1^{\circ}$ and from $29.0^{\circ}$ to $36.1^{\circ}$, respectively. Conclusions: The prototype three-wheel riding cultivator showed a wide range of travel and PTO speeds, high minimum ground clearance, small minimum radius of turning, and easy control of the rear wheel tread. Further, the easy observation of cultivating operations by mid-mounting the implements can improve quality of work. Therefore, the prototype is expected to contribute to the riding mechanization of cultivating operations for various upland crops in Korea.