Vertical Star Screen Tillage Machine for Soil Separation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing screening machines are ineffective for compact surfaces like soil or agricultural land, as they require initial tillage to break clods, resulting in low screening efficacy, large bulkiness, and limited ability to separate materials into fine and coarse fractions efficiently.
Innovation Solution
A machine that combines a tiller with a screen, where the tiller throws clods onto a slightly elastic star screen with rotating axes parallel to the tiller's axis, allowing for efficient separation of fine and coarse materials with adjustable granulometry, and includes a carter for deflection and protection, enabling high screening efficacy and controlled discharge of materials.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a self-propelled screening machine with a horizontally arranged star screen is used to till and screen compact surface, then the machine can separate clods into fine and coarse fractions, but the screening efficacy is low because clods remain on the screen for insufficient time
Solution Approach 1:
The screen is reoriented from a horizontal arrangement to a vertical arrangement. This dimensional change allows clods to be thrown onto the upper surface of the vertical screen, where gravity causes them to travel downward along the screen surface for an extended period, significantly increasing residence time and screening efficacy.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of the conventional horizontal screen where clods are thrown onto the side, the invention inverts the arrangement by placing the screen vertically and throwing clods onto its upper surface. This inversion enables gravity to work in favor of extending the screening path and time.
2Productivity
If a self-propelled screening machine with horizontal star screen is used, then clods can be thrown onto the screen, but the machine becomes very bulky in scale despite limited efficacy
Solution Approach 1:
By reorienting the screen from horizontal to vertical arrangement, the invention compactly utilizes the vertical space within the machine structure. This allows for extended screening length without proportionally increasing the machine's horizontal footprint and overall bulkiness.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a horizontal star screen is used for screening, then clods can be separated into fine and coarse fractions, but the machine can only discharge materials at limited positions
Solution Approach 1:
The vertical screen is equipped with multiple discharge openings positioned at different heights along its length. This segmentation allows different size fractions to be discharged at different positions, enabling flexible material distribution and enhanced separation efficiency simultaneously.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The machine achieves high screening efficacy with extended residence time of clods on the screen, reduced bulkiness, and controlled discharge of materials, allowing for efficient separation and distribution of fine and coarse fractions, suitable for various applications including agricultural land preparation and soil cultivation.
Implementation Method 1
a slightly elastic star screen with rotating axes parallel to the tiller's axis
Data Source
Figure 1~2
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AI summary
A machine for the moving work of a compact surface (T) to be tilled, the machine comprising or being operatively connectable with forwarding means for moving the machine on the compact surface (T) along a forwarding direction (f) so as the machine works the compact surface (T) during movement. The machine comprising at least one tiller (20) to till the compact surface, so as to obtain a plurality of tilled clods and at least one screen (30) configured to separate said plurality of tilled clods in at least two fractions. The tiller (20) comprises means (21) to throw the tilled clods along a throwing trajectory (d). Furthermore, the tiller (20) and the screen (30) are in a spatial relationship such that the throwing trajectory (d) intercepts the screen (30), so as the tiller (20) continuously feeds the screen during the movement of the machine (1).