Abstract:
Abstract: Vegetable grafting machines are extensively studied by Japan, South Korea, China and North America, and various types of grafting machines were developed successfully. In China, Zhang Tiezhong, Gu Song, and other researchers carried out ample work on cut-pasting in vegetable grafting machines. However, due to the complexity of grafting technology and the poor applicability of the grafting machine, these machines are not widely used in China. Therefore, it is significant to develop an automatic grafting machine that can be suitable for agricultural production in northeast China. In order to realize automation of a vegetable grafting machine, and solve the difficulties of automatic sorting grafting clips because of their complex shape and structure, a vibration sorting-clip device for vegetable grafting machine was designed, and the working parameters of the device were optimized by using the experimental methods in this study. The circular cylindrical hopper is one of the most important structures in the vibration sorting-clip device. The spiral material passage's inner wall of a circular cylindrical hopper is installed by four fixed guiding mechanisms which are used to sort and direct vegetable grafting clips while conveying them. The first and the second fixed guiding mechanism are both sheet-shaped structures, the third is rod-shaped and the fourth is hole-shaped. A screening dam bar is another key component of the vibration sorting-clip device that is installed on a lateral plate between the end of the spiral material passage and the discharge port. The installing angle and installing length of the screening dam bar can be adjusted and the two major factors will affect the performance of the vibration delivery device. In addition, the input vibration voltage is also another major factor that will affect the performance of the vibration sorting-clip device. The grafting clips for the typical muskmelon were selected as the research objects. Three variables were selected as the experimental factors, i.e. input vibration voltage, installing angle, and the installing length of the screening dam bar. The variation coefficient of sorting clips that represented the performance of sorting grafting clips was determined as the experimental index. Moreover, the single factor experiment and two regression orthogonal experiments were conducted in order to determine the optimal technological parameters of the vibration sorting-clip device. The single factor experiments studied the influence of input vibration voltage, installing angle, and installing length on variation coefficient of sorting clips, respectively. According to the results of single factor experiment, the two regression orthogonal experiments were conducted after selecting two reasonable values within the effective range as two levels. The optimal operating parameters of the vibration sorting-clip device for the vegetable grafting machine were determined by the experiment. The input vibratory voltage of the sorting device was 40V, the installing angle of the screening dam bar was 25.7 degrees, the installing length of the screening dam bar was 45.5 millimeters, and the variation coefficient of the sorting clips was 0.6822. The parameters proved to be the best performance of the sorting grafting clips until the present. The success rate was 100% and the working efficiency was 70 per min by using the above parameters. Under the conditions of the optimal operating parameters, the vibration sorting-clip device of the vegetable grafting machine can meet the requirements of design. Therefore, the vibration sorting clips device can achieve automatic conveying and sorting of vegetable grafting clips successfully, and the experimental results provide important references for developing an automatic vegetable grafting machine.