Dirt Removal Piling Machine for Sugar Beets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional dirt removal and piling machines for sugar beets and other tuber crops are inefficient, causing damage, delays, and spills due to slow operation and lack of conveyor systems, leading to reduced sugar content and increased susceptibility to infection and rot.
Innovation Solution
A modular dirt removal and piling machine with a sideways tilting unloading station, rotatable cleaning rollers, an underlying dirt conveyor, a moveable dirt dumping conveyor, and an automated sampling arm, along with an upwardly angled main conveyor and telescopic piling conveyor, which minimizes damage and spillage while increasing processing efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional piling machines use slow discharge container movement, then the machine structure is simple, but truck waiting time increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the discharge container movable rather than stationary, allowing it to be positioned optimally for each discharge cycle. The container can move horizontally and vertically to receive material directly from the conveyor and discharge it efficiently, eliminating the need for slow manual repositioning and reducing truck waiting time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a conveyor belt as an intermediary between the cleaning rollers and the discharge container. This conveyor continuously transports cleaned beets to the container, enabling continuous processing without interruption and significantly reducing the time trucks spend waiting for discharge operations.
2Ease of manufacture
If conventional machines use simple dirt removal mechanisms, then device complexity is low, but workpiece damage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical scraping or brushing dirt removal mechanisms with a pneumatic or hydraulic jet system. High-pressure air or water jets remove dirt from beets without physical contact that could cause bruising or damage, while maintaining relatively simple device construction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of dirt removal from mechanical force to fluid pressure. By using controlled high-pressure jets, the system achieves effective dirt removal with minimal mechanical stress on the workpieces, reducing damage while keeping the overall device structure manageable.
3Device complexity
If conventional piling machines lack conveyor systems, then device complexity is reduced, but spillage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a continuous conveyor system that maintains constant material flow from the cleaning station through to the discharge container. This continuous action prevents material from stopping or spilling during transfer operations, ensuring that cleaned beets are continuously transported and deposited in a controlled manner.
Solution Approach 2:
The conveyor belt serves as an intermediary transport mechanism between the cleaning rollers and the discharge container. It provides a controlled, enclosed path for material transfer, preventing spillage that would occur with direct dumping or manual handling, while adding only moderate complexity to the overall system.
Data Source
AI summary
A dirt removal and piling machine is ideally suited for use in cleaning and piling individualized and non-uniformly shaped workpieces, preferably sugar beets but also potatoes, other tuber crops, and even with aggregate rocks for a tilting receiving station. A further aspect of the present machine includes a workpiece unloading or receiving station which can tip sideways after a dump truck unloads the workpieces and longitudinally drives therethrough. In another aspect, the machine also includes a cleaning station having rotatable rollers, an underlying dirt conveyor and a moveable dirt dumping conveyor, hopper or bucket adjacent an end of the dirt conveyor and external to the rollers. Furthermore, another aspect of the machine includes an automatic and/or robotic sampling arm which is operable to remove a tuber crop workpiece sample and automatically package the sample after the sample has moved through a cleaning station.