Design and development of a low land cabbage harvester prototype
2021
Rohazrin Abdul Rani | Hafidha Azmon | Mohd Fazly Mail | Mohd Shahmihaizan Mat Jusoh | Mohd Nadzim Nordin | Mohd Zubir Idris
This article illustrates the design and development of a mechanical round cabbage harvester. The harvester is suitable for a single row planted of round cabbage. The prototype was designed and developed by MARDI. Harvesting of round cabbage in Malaysia is still done manually. The traditional harvesting method was tedious, causing back pain and exposed the operator to sharp knife when cutting the cabbage head at its base. A study of round cabbage physical properties was conducted to investigate the need of specifications for the design of the harvester. The harvester attached to the side of a modified vehicle that suit to be used on a farm. The developed prototype consists of a frame chassis for carriage the whole set of harvesting mechanism and as a guided to the vehicle driver along a row of cabbage plants, dual-disc cutter with contra rotating disc for cutting the stems and leaves from uprooted cabbage heads, conveyor belt system to transport the cabbage heads directly into the collection basket at the back of the vehicle. The harvesting machine has an adjustable mechanism for cutting purposes. All parts of the harvesting system were powered by an electric motor which tapped from the vehicle. The results showed that the harvester prototype exhibited good ability, feasibility and productivity that met the preliminary mechanized harvesting requirements, which would be a breakthrough for mechanized cabbage harvesting in Malaysia. The developed prototype removes cabbage harvesting by hand, and greatly decreases the amount of hours it takes to harvest a cabbage field.
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