Study on Design Parameters Effecting Mechanical Carrot Harvester

The design parameters of a mechanical carrot harvester were determined by conducting experiments on a test set-up having provision to vary design variables. Three lengths of soil separators (40, 60 and 80 cm), three rake angles (15°, 25° and 35°) were test evaluated at three soil separators angles (0°, 10° and 20°) on the test set-up at an optimum soil moisture content of 12 per cent. Performance parameters like percentage of carrots harvested, percentage of carrots damaged, soil separation index and power requirement were measured and design values of different components were determined. The maximum percentage of carrots harvesting of 97.4 per cent at 60 cm length of soil separator, rake angle of 25° and 20° angle of soil separator. Minimum percentage of carrots damage of 4.87 per cent was obtained at 40 cm length of soil separator and 20° soil separator angle. Carrots damaged obtained in the range of 4.63 to 4.97 per cent between 25° and 35° rake angle. The soil separation index was most affected by length and angle of soil separator. A minimum soil separation index of 0.23 can be obtained at 80 cm and 20° of length and angle of soil separator, respectively. An average power requirement for the operation of carrot harvester at a speed of 2.3 km/h was 4.44, 5.3 and 5.75 kW at 15°, 25° and 35° of rake angle.