Discussion on the Design of Spring Hinge Applied to Centrifugal Drum Stripping Mechanism_Hinge Knowl

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The workload of sugarcane harvesting accounts for about 55% of the total sugarcane planting work, and the leaf stripping time accounts for about 60% of the sugarcane harvesting time. The key link of planting mechanization operation level. Sugarcane planting in the United States, Brazil, Cuba, Australia and other countries is mostly large-scale contiguous planting, and the whole process of mechanization of planting, management, and harvesting has been basically realized. Most sugarcane harvesting uses efficient high-power combined harvesting.

Before the sugarcane is harvested, the stems and leaves of the sugarcane are burned with fire, and then the sugarcane is cut into cane segments by a large combine harvester, and the remaining wrapped leaves are removed by the axial flow exhaust fan on the harvester. The harvester does not have a leaf stripping mechanism.

Most of the sugarcane areas in China, Japan, India, Thailand, the Philippines and other Asian countries are hilly areas, mostly on hillsides and small plots. The terrain is complex, and the sugarcane planting is irregular and not in pieces. It is not suitable for large-scale combine harvesters. The main promotion is a small segmented harvesting system composed of sugarcane harvester, sugarcane leaf stripper, and transport machinery. Sugarcane leaf stripping is mainly completed by using an independent sugarcane leaf stripper or installing a leaf stripping mechanism on a full-bar sugarcane harvester. The peeling mechanism is the core device of the sugarcane leaf peeling machine.

Since the 1980s, relevant scientific research institutes and colleges and universities in China have increased the research and development of sugarcane harvesting machinery, including the sugarcane leaf peeling machine. They have introduced advanced models from Japan, Australia, and other countries for digestion and absorption, and successfully developed a batch of leaf strippers whose main technical indicators have reached the level of similar foreign models. These leaf strippers are mainly equipped with centrifugal drum-type leaf stripping mechanisms. However, the leaf stripping effect of the centrifugal drum-type sugarcane leaf stripper is still unsatisfactory, and the main technical indicators such as impurity content, skin damage rate, breakage rate, leaf stripping element life, and machine adaptability still cannot meet market requirements. Specifically, the leaf stripping element life is short and the impurity content is high, which hinders the popularization of sugarcane leaf strippers.

Therefore, it is of great importance to strengthen the research and development of sugarcane leaf stripping mechanisms for improving the mechanized operation level of China's sugarcane planting industry.

Currently, the nation's domestic market for leaf stripping machines mainly utilizes centrifugal drum-type leaf stripping mechanisms composed of a feeding wheel, a stripping roller, and stripping elements. However, several issues exist with this design.

Firstly, the leaf stripping effect is not ideal. The centrifugal drum-type sugarcane leaf stripping mechanism relies on repeated blows, friction, and dragging from the leaf stripping elements to remove the sugarcane leaves. Due to the arrangement of two leaf stripping rollers along the sugarcane radial direction, there is a blind area where the leaves are not completely peeled off, leading to a high impurity rate and skin damage rate.

Secondly, the leaf stripping elements have a short service life. The repeated impact and friction during work cause wear and tear, with stripping elements such as rubber fingers and nylon wire being particularly susceptible to damage. Additionally, steel wire and steel brush leaf stripping elements have a high skin damage rate.

Thirdly, maintaining the leaf stripping elements is inconvenient. The small and sealed space in which the leaf stripping elements are installed makes maintenance and replacement troublesome.

Lastly, the centrifugal drum-type leaf stripping mechanism has poor adaptive ability. With sugarcane mainly grown in typhoon-prone areas with varying curvatures, the fixed structure of the transmission and transmission devices makes it difficult to automatically adapt to sugarcane with different diameters and curvatures, resulting in a high breakage rate.

To address these problems, a new design for the leaf stripping mechanism has been proposed. This design includes a spring hinge adaptive leaf stripping mechanism and a caudal lobe cutting and peeling mechanism.

The caudal lobe cutting and peeling mechanism is responsible for cutting off the tail of the sugarcane and peeling off the young leaves at the tail to prepare for the peeling of the sugarcane stems and leaves. It consists of a tail cutting saw blade, a tail cutting knife barrel, a tail leaf peeling knife installation rod, and a tail leaf peeling knife.

The main leaf stripping mechanism, on the other hand, consists of a feeding wheel, leaf stripping knife, spring hinge mechanism, and other parts. The leaf stripping knives are connected to the fixed frame through hinges and are pressed by springs. The rotation of the leaf stripping knife rod around the hinge allows for automatic adaptation to changes in sugarcane diameter. The upper leaf stripping knife is opened under gravity, while the lower leaf stripping knife is lifted upwards by the spring force. This design ensures that four stripping knives wrap the sugarcane stem concentrically, allowing for efficient and thorough peeling of the sugarcane stems and leaves.

The leaf stripping machine, designed as a double-station trolley type, also integrates two tail leaf cutting and stripping mechanisms. These mechanisms, along with the main leaf stripping mechanism, have shown excellent leaf stripping effects, strong self-adaptive ability, and a long leaf stripping knife service life.

In conclusion, the new design of the leaf stripping mechanism offers improved performance over the centrifugal drum-type leaf stripping mechanism. The spring hinge adaptive leaf stripping mechanism and caudal lobe cutting and peeling mechanism address the shortcomings of the previous design, resulting in enhanced peeling efficiency, lower impurity and skin damage rates, and easier maintenance and repair. By implementing these improvements, China's sugarcane planting industry can achieve higher levels of mechan