Optimal Design and Testing of a Crawler-Type Flax Combine Harvester

Ruijie Shi, Fei Dai, Wuyun Zhao (), Xiaolong Liu, Tianfu Wang and Yiming Zhao
Additional contact information
Ruijie Shi: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Fei Dai: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Wuyun Zhao: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Xiaolong Liu: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Tianfu Wang: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Yiming Zhao: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-21

Abstract: China is a large flax-growing country, with planting area and production ranking among the top three in the world. However, the cultivation range of flax in China is very broad, complex, and diverse, resulting in different planting scales and patterns, making it difficult to apply foreign large combine harvesters, and China lacks a dedicated flax combine harvester. This research improved the design of the 4LZ-4.0 crawler-type flax combine harvester for the regional features and flax cropping patterns in China. First, the structure, technical parameters, and working principles of the machine were introduced; second, the theoretical analysis and optimization of key components were performed; and finally, with the advancing speed of the machine, the speed of the threshing drum, and the speed of the suction fan as independent variables and the rate of removal and the total loss rate as response values, a three-factor, three-level response surface analysis method was used. For each component and response value, a mathematical model was created, and the factors and their interactions were evaluated and confirmed. The results demonstrated that the three parameters impact the threshing drum speed, advancing speed, and centrifugal fan speed in that order of priority, as well as the total loss rate in that order of priority. The machine’s optimal operating settings were 1.5 m·s −1 advancing speed, 788.49 r·min −1 threshing drum speed, and 885.34 r·min −1 centrifugal fan speed, and the validation test results indicated that under the typical dryland dense flax cultivation mode, it had a 97.46% threshing rate and 2.99% total loss rate after the test. This demonstrated that optimizing operational parameters may decrease losses in the process of mechanical flax harvesting, enhance harvesting efficiency, and satisfy the marketable flax harvesting standards.

Keywords: combine harvester; crawler-type; flax; optimized design; experimental verification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/2/229/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/2/229/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:2:p:229-:d:1038844

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().