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The modern technology of sugar beet haulm harvesting assumes the so-called double-stage cutting. First, the basic continuous cutting of the haulm residues from the epicotyl is carried out by using rotor haulmcutting mechanisms. Then there follows clearance or cutting the residues from the epicotyl. This technology allows continuous, superior quality cutting and green matter harvesting. The green matter can be used as cattle fodder or a raw material for the production of biogas and clearance of haulm from root crops, eliminating the loss of sugary mass. We have developed a new structure of the epicotyl remover of haulm residues; the production tests have yielded positive results. The remover comprises two driving horizontal cylinders, on which cleaning elastic blades are fixed with a toggle in the radial direction. The machine's shafts clasp each row of root crops, and the blades produce elastic bumps to the epicotyl from two opposite sides, thus cleaning effectively the spherical surfaces of the sugar beet epicotyls from the haulm residues. We have also developed new experimental equipment that allows modeling the work of the remover in field conditions, and we further pursue the experimental research of the machinery and tools. We have designed a program and methods to facilitate a field multifactorial experiment with a remover of haulm residues from the epicotyl of sugar beet roots and to determine the relevant quality indicators. The acquired results, processed by a PC, showed that the quality of the technological process that employs a remover with two driving horizontal cylinders to extract the haulm residues from the epicotyl of sugar beet can be improved via an elevated circumferential speed of the remover's driving cylinders and a reduced height of the fixed blades above the level of the soil surface at a low gradual speed of the machine motion. Based on an analysis of the acquired functional and graphic dependences, we claim that the rational significance of the functioning modes of the studied remover of haulm residues from sugar beet epicotyl, which delivers the highest quality operation in order to remove the haulm residues from the spherical surfaces of the epicotyls of root crops, involves: 1) the speed of the gradual motion of the remover - 1.5...2.5 m·s-1; 2) the circumferential speed of the rotation of the driving cylinders - 55...80 rad·s-1; 3) the height of fixing the blades of the remover over the soil surface level - 0...2.5 cm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the technologies for harvesting carrots is to separate the tops without extracting the carrots from the soil with their subsequent digging up from the soil. Since the cutting of tops is carried out, as a rule, by a continuous rotary top-cutting apparatus, there is a need to further clean the root crop heads from the top residues. A new design has been developed for a two-shaft cleaner without extracting the carrots from the soil, which cleans each head from both sides with flexible cleaning blades, mounted on horizontal drive shafts. For a theoretical research of this process there was constructed a mathematical model of the interaction of the flexible cleaning blade with the head of the carrot. For this purpose, an equivalent diagram was drawn up for the interaction of the flexible cleaning blade with the carrot root crop, which is located in the soil (conventionally, it is actually firmly fixed in it). In addition, in this equivalent diagram the remains of the tops are shown on the head of the carrot root. Besides that, the interaction of the flexible cleaning blade with the head of the carrot root crop is implemented in two phases: first, the phase of impact of the blade upon the head of the root crop, and then its post-impact movement. These phases of impact upon the head provide conditions according to which, during the interaction, first, knocking down, and then combing off the remains of the tops occurs. The equivalent diagram shows the velocities of points during the impact interaction, the actual velocities and the applied forces. Based on the use of the theorem about the change in the momentum of a material point upon impact, the impact impulse is determined, and an analytical expression is obtained to determine the final speed of the impact point. Calculations have been made for the speed of the contact point after the impact, and graphical dependencies, affecting it has been found. The results of the theoretical studies showed that at a low velocity of the machine and tractor unit Vn the influence of the angular velocity ω of the blade has a significant influence on the value of the after impact velocity U of the blade. So, at a speed Vn = 0.5 m·s-1, the after impact speed U increases only by 40…350%. But at Vn = 3.0 m·s-1, the after impact velocity U increases only by 1.3…30.2% when the angular velocity ω of the blade changes in the range from 10 to 50 rad·s-1. The next stage of the research was the study of the post-impact movement of the flexible cleaning blade along the very head of the carrot, which made it possible to determine the conditions for efficient combing off the remains of the tops on it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]