Design, manufacture, and performance evaluation of a single-axle tractor-operated potato digger elevator

Abstract

This study presents the design, manufacture, and test of a two-wheel tractor-mounted potato digger elevator for harvesting potatoes. The experimental design for the prototype evaluations is a split plot where the conveyor slope (10°, 15°, and 20°) is the main plot and the rake angle (15°, 20°, and 25°) is a sub-plot with three replications. It was discovered that increasing the blade angle reduced tuber damage loss while increasing the conveyor slope. The greatest exposure effectiveness of 96.47% is recorded at a conveyor slope of 15° and a rake angle of 20°. At this optimum condition, damage percentage, conveyance efficiency, cleaning efficiency, drawbar pull, fuel consumption, wheel slip, soil swelling factor, soil mean weight diameter, pulverization ratio, and field capacity are 3.39%, 89.64%, 91.87%, 2959.1 N, 14.87 l/ha, 17.67%, 20.25%, 17.44 mm, 78.09%, and 0.127 hectares per hour, respectively. In comparison to manual hand hoe harvesting, the prototype can save 86.6% on labor and 63.36% on harvesting costs. The equipment is acceptable with its high promise for deployment to small to medium-sized farmers, and the authors advise re-evaluating at greater rake angles and conveying slope using multiple potato varieties and a double axel tractor.