Performance Testing and Evaluation of Drum-Type Stem-Separation Device for Pepper Harvester

The chili pepper harvester has shown potential problems of low pepper stem separation and a high pepper damage rate. The low pepper stem separation has required additional labor, which consists of separating the pepper and stem after pepper harvesting. To improve the stem separation and sorting function of pepper harvesters, three-shaft and four-shaft drum-type stem-separation devices were manufactured, and performance tests were conducted to assess these devices. In an attempt to reduce the damage rate, a brush was used as the teeth in the drum-type stem-separation device. In the factor test, the rotational speeds of shaft 1(A), shaft 2(B), shaft 3(C), and the conveyor for the three-shaft drum were 0.9, 2.7, 1.3, and 0.5 m/s, respectively. The rotational speed of the four-shaft drum was the same as that of the three-shaft drum except for shaft 4(D), and the rotational speed of this additional D was set to 1.3 m/s, which was the same as that of C. In the non-moving status during the non-picking operation of the pepper harvester, the average stem-separation efficiency (SSE) of the four-shaft drum increased by 1.2%, the average pepper with twig rate (PTR) decreased by 5.9%, and the average damage rate (DR) increased by 3.7% compared to the three-shaft drum. In the moving status during the picking operation of the pepper harvester, the SSE of the four-shaft drum increased by 3.6%, the PTR decreased by 9.1%, and the DR increased by 3.8% compared to the three-shaft drum, so an improvement in the pepper stem-separation capacity was observed.