High output TAKI-18M tomato harvester

The TAKI harvester is used for one time solid tomatopicking for the purposes of the processing industry, the tomatoes aresorted at a stationary station by their maturity.

General structure of the TAKI-18M harvester and the technological processof its functioning

The TAKI-18M harvester consists of a cutting group.Depending on the harvesting conditions, it can be presented by cutting discswith vertical conveyors or a square shaft, the portable sleeve elevator, thebackfall with a tightening devicefor its top cloth, the finger cleaner, thecylindrical brush of the cross conveyor which at the same time is theinspection table at its last part.

(TAKI-18M harvester working in the Kherson oblast in September, 2009).

The rotary fruit separator is presented by the barrel system with theoff-center pull-out fingers, soft reflectors over the barrels, hard aprons withsoft ends, jointed hinge for the last apron with its spring and its slot platecurved for the last barrel. The harvester also includes a lengthway conveyor, afan, an unloading conveyor, a pumping unit, a hydraulic reservoir, theundercarriage.

All of the harvester's conveyors are rod-shaped and covered with softmaterial, just like the frames of all rollers, which have the possibility toadjust the phase of the maximal radius of the fingers and their rotation speed.The harvester can be aggregated with the 14kN tractors by means of the TSU2hydrohook or a short hinge. The transmission of the harvester is hydraulic.It's fed by the autonomous pump unit, which is run by a tractor's VOM by meansof driveline. The electrical equipment and the automatic operating system arefed of the tractor's electrical system..

Technological process of the harvester's functioning

When the harvester is moving along the filed, the cutting group (dependingon the harvesting conditions, can be presented by the discs with the corrugatedconveyors or a square shaft revolving towardfs the elevator) cuts and picks theupper layer of the ground with the bushes and the crumbled fruits. Ittransports the picked objects to the elevator, where screening of the dirtoccurs. When coming off the horizontal part of the elevator, the objects aresplit in two streams.

The dropped fruits, small plant residues and ground (first stream) drop tothe technological slot, made by the last rod of the elevator and the mobileroll. Then, they get to the backoff of the roll, which passes the stream to thebrush.

The brush extracts of the stream standart fruits and passess them to thecross conveyor. The other parts are dropped to the passed areas of thefield.

The finger cleaner is used for cleaning the interdigital clearance of dirt.The bushes with non-separated fruits (second stream) are taken off the elevatorby mobile roll fingers. Then, they are put to the rotary fruit separator, wherethe fruits are actually separated off the bushes.

The bushes are thrown out to the passed area, and the separated fruits getto the fruit conveyor and are dropped to the halm conveyor, from where the getto the cross conveyor. Coming off the conveyor, they are blown by the fan.

If necessary, manual inpection of the fruit stream is possible, before theyare passed to the unloading conveyor. For this purpose, trays for removal oflarge plant residues and dirt are set at the end of the cross conveyor.

Eventually, the standart fruits are passed to the trailer of a neighbourvehicle by the unloading conveyor.

Preparing to work

TAKI-18M tomato harvester meets the modern technical levels of the tomatoharvesters. Correctly used, it can ensure increasing of the tomato output inmedium soils and under the heavy humidity..

The harvester is equpped with brand new cutting, picking and separatingunits, so before you run the harvester, its structure should be studied.Special attention should be paid to the adjusting the units of theharvester.

How to unitize the harvester with MTZ 80/82, MTZ 100/102 and MTZ 142tractors

• set the vertical rods of the tractor,
• connect the harvester's trailer to the drawbar clevis of the tractor by means of pivot bolt and pin it,
• fasten the safety chain,
• connect and fasten the telescopic shaft, so its part with cladding was fixed at VMP, and the part with the inner curb was fixed at the VOM of the tractor, the jaws shoud be in one plane,
• fix the chains of the curbs of the telescopic shaft (for VOM - by the ring of the fixing pin of the central draw of the hinge, for VMP - by the front frame bearing bolt),
• connect the wiring of the harvester to the socket connector of the tractor. The excess of harness should be shortened by means of coverage of the front bar of the trailer's frame,
• connect the high pressure sleeves from the cutoff clutch to the output of the pressure system at the drain line of the tractor.

ATTENTION!

When the engine is working, connecting the telescopic shaft of the harvesterto the tractor's VOM is forbidden

When the harvester is lifting or the unit is turning,leaving the VOM on is strictly forbidden..

Working with the harvester, switch the VOM on and off smoothly.

Switching the VOM off should be made by switching the operating handle fromthe "on" position (front position) to the "off" position (back position). TheVOM's rate is 450 revolutions per minute.

The order of work

To make the work successful, the tractor operator needs to know theharvester, to have it prepared and to have all the necessary tools, spare partsand switch parts, the necessary amount of the fuel and oil.

The sorting men have to know what their duties are, they have to beinstructed of safety procedures and rules of fire safety. During the season,the staff for one harvester can switch no more than 3 times.

Preparing the area for work

Before harvesting, the area should be prepared. For this, the temoraryirrigation networks should be leveled. Prepare lanes to let the harvester moveand turn.

If no space for moving and turning is available, manual picking should bemade in order to make the lanes.

Service condidtions

The tomatoes should be grown in areas of regular shape, run no less than 700m. Relief should be smooth, with slope to 5 degrees. The area should be cleanedof stones and other mechanical impuruties. Soil moisture should be no more than20%, with hardness to 1.5 MPa, crestedness to 30 mm, cohesion to 35-36 Ka.

Width of the turning lane should be no less than 24 m. Width of the straightmoving lane should be no less than 10 m.

The tomato bushes should be compact, simultaneous ageing and similar shapesand sizes required. They have to be resistent to mechanicak damage (specificresistance to squeezing is no less than 0.6 n/g, amplification of puncturing isno less than 130 g/mm, weight of pulp ranges from 32 to 96 g, peel elasticityin tensile strain is 145-150 g), fall (no more than 8% of fallen fruits). Theyhave to be separable without the stem (effort of tearing the fruit from thestem ranges from 12 to 22 N). The harvesting should be begun when 70% oftomatoes are red-ripe.

When the harvesting is being made, the amount of defective fruits (damagedby pests and maladies, and also rotten) should be no more than 5%. The minimalsize of a regular fruit should be no less than 25 mm.

Amount of undesirable plants should be no more than 300 g per a squaremeter. They should be no higher than 30 cm and wider than 2 cm at the root.

All the picked fruits should be loaded to the containers or vehicles,unitized with tractors (which ensure simultaneous moving).

When working with moistened soils, the harvester should be washed every daywith water srceen and cleaning agents. When working with dry soils, it shouldbe washed after sufficient dirtying.

To create the lane for first pass of the harvester, the irrigators should beclosed, leveled by a motor grader and rolled. The order of working forharvesting

Before works in the area, adjust the working units, set the depth of thecutting discs or the square sfaft, the starting and the finishing angles of thefinger backfall, frequency of rotation of the rollers of the rotary fruitseparator, and the phase of maximal overhang of the fingers, speed of movementof the cross inspection table, the elevatorи and the unloading conveyor(preliminarily set it to the working mode according to the adjusting table).The harvester works with the vehicle. Harvesting of the tomatoes is made whenthe harvester is moving along the row while moving in circle (clockwise orcounter clockwise) so the passed field was always right to the harvester.

Before the work begins, the sorter men take their places on the platform.The tractor driver beeps and after the back beep from the plaform startsmoving. The tractor should be droven so the suppporting wheels of the cuttinggroup were at the center between the rows. The exactlier the tractor moves, thebetter is the cutting and quality of picking of the fruits..

Depending on the area's properties, the pickup attachement is chosen. Themost universal is the disc pickup attachement. However, if the area is plannedthroughoutly, amount of undesirable plants is not too high and the soil iseasy, the square shaft will be more effective. In this case, the harvesterspeed should not be less 3.5 km/h.

The harvester can work also in the area, where the bushes are preliminarily cut (in order to increase ripening and decrease the ratio of leaves and stems). In this case, the harvesting can be made no earlier than in 5 days after cutting. The cutting discs or the square shaft should not be too deepened (no deeper than 16 mm).

When the harvester is moving, the discs or the square shaft cut the bushes at a depth which would not allow the fruits to stay and which would minimize amounts of ground getting to the harvester (to 50 mm).

The sorter men are picking out of the stream impuruties and extremely damaged fruits, passing them to the part of the conveyor which brings them to the already passed area of the field..

After harvesting and when moving to the other areas, the tractor operator should bring it into the transport mode.