Design and Experiment for a Crawler Self-Propelled Potato Combine Harvester for Hilly and Mountainous Areas

Huimin Fang, Jinyu Li, Qingyi Zhang (), Guangsen Cheng, Jialu Lu and Jie Zhang
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Huimin Fang: School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Jinyu Li: School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Qingyi Zhang: School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Guangsen Cheng: Yucheng Yatai Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Dezhou 251200, China
Jialu Lu: School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Jie Zhang: School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 16, 1-26

Abstract: Aiming at key issues in harvesting film-covered potatoes in hilly and mountainous areas—incomplete residual film collection, poor potato–soil separation, and high damage from potato-collecting devices—this study developed a crawler self-propelled potato harvester suitable for these regions. This study first expounds the overall structure and working principle of the potato harvester and then conducts principal analysis and structural design for key components (film-collecting device, digging device, primary conveying and separating device, secondary conveying and separating device, and intelligent potato-collecting device) from the perspectives of material force and movement. Finally, field performance tests were carried out in Huangzhong County, Xining City, Qinghai Province. The test results show that the machine can achieve an operation effect with a potato harvest loss rate of 2.4%, a potato damage rate of 1.4%, an impurity content rate of 2.8%, a skin-breaking rate of 2.7%, and a residual film cleaning rate of 89.6%, meeting the potato harvesting needs of this region. The lightweight self-propelled crawler potato harvester designed in this paper can realize functions such as residual film collection, potato–soil vibration separation, manual auxiliary sorting, and intelligent potato boxing, providing technical and equipment references for the harvesting of film-covered potatoes in complex terrain areas.

Keywords: potato combine harvesting; residual film recycling; conveying and separating; auxiliary sorting platform; intelligent potato collection (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: 2025
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