Bulb Cutting Guide Surface for Consistent Rootlet Height
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing machines for cutting radish rootlets and foliage after harvest often result in inconsistent cuts due to varying bulb heights, leading to material loss and poor visual quality.
Innovation Solution
An automatic machine with a cutting drum positioned below a guide surface featuring longitudinal slots allows for consistent cutting of rootlets just below the surface, ensuring a constant height and quality of cut, while also incorporating rotatable cutting drums with adjustable knives and a taut blade for simultaneous leaf cutting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a cutting system is arranged above or below parallel belts to cut rootlets or foliage of bulbs driven by these belts, then the harvesting process is automated and productivity is improved, but due to varied bulb heights the cutting height becomes inconsistent leading to material loss and poor visual quality
Solution Approach 1:
The guide surface acts as an intermediary element between the bulbs and the cutting drum. It provides a reference plane that standardizes the position of bulbs with varied heights, ensuring that all bulbs present their base at a consistent height relative to the cutting drum, thereby achieving uniform rootlet cutting despite initial height variations
Solution Approach 2:
The guide surface changes the positional parameter of bulbs by providing a sloped surface with slots that allows bulbs to settle at a standardized position. This parameter change (from varied heights to standardized base height) enables consistent cutting height while maintaining automated operation
2Productivity
If a fixed cutting height is used for all bulbs, then the cutting process is simple and fast, but bulbs with varied heights result in inconsistent cuts eliminating part of the bulb or leaving rootlets
Solution Approach 1:
The guide surface serves as a mediator that adapts bulbs of various heights to a common reference plane before cutting. The slots in the guide surface allow bulbs to self-position, with the bulb base resting on the guide surface at a standardized height, preventing both over-cutting and under-cutting while maintaining high cutting speed
Solution Approach 2:
The guide surface performs a preliminary action of height standardization before the actual cutting occurs. By positioning bulbs on the guide surface with slots upstream of the cutting drum, the system prepares all bulbs to the correct cutting height in advance, ensuring consistent cuts without sacrificing productivity
Data Source
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AI summary
The object of the invention is an automatic machine for cutting rootlets below the bulbs forming the root of a plant. This machine comprises at least one means for longitudinally driving a row of bulbs in a rearward direction, with the rootlets facing downwards; at least one cutting drum (68) disposed below the drive means; and a guiding surface (60) originating upstream of the cutting drum(s) and extending rearward to fit over the drum(s) as it approaches the drive means. This surface comprises at least one longitudinal slot extending upstream of the cutting drum(s), having a width that allows the rootlets to pass through and retains the bulbs above. Advantageously, the machine further comprises a tensioned blade passing over the drive means for cutting the leaves of the plants.