Abstract
A fresh market cabbage harvester was constructed on the previous experimental bases. The main components of the harvesting unit were a pair of screw-augers, a knife fixed in the direction of about 45 deg to the screw-augers and an overhead belt-conveyor. As the result of field tests in 1980/81, the percentage of “well harvested” heads except “shallow cut” and “deep cut” ones was estimated as about 50-60% under the adjustment condition to lead the rate of “deep cut” heads less than 5%. And also, the following plant and field conditions were found as factors influencing cutting height; length from the ground surface to the butt of heads, number of wrapper leaves before harvesting, vertical force required to remove cabbages from the ground, and head height under the condition that the overhead belt-conveyor pushed strongly heads down on the screw-augers whereas head diameter under the condition that it pushed weakly heads. It was, therefore, considered that it necessitated essentially developing the automatic control technique of cutting height to improve the above stated harvesting accuracy.
