蔬菜穴盘育苗底部气吹式钵体松脱装置设计

Design of root lump loosening mechanism using air jets to eject vegetable plug seedlings

针对蔬菜穴盘苗直接拔苗费力又损伤大的问题,设计了一种有助于穴盘苗移栽的气吹式钵体松脱装置。利用直线模组移位单元和双联气缸升降单元组合成输送系统,驱动气嘴排从穴盘底部的穴孔排水口逐排顶吹穴盘苗钵体,实现穴盘苗钵体与穴孔壁之间非机械接触式放松,利于移栽时人工轻松拔苗或机械快速夹取。对关键部件进行设计,使用排气孔直径为5mm的气嘴,能确保气体射流从128穴孔排水口有效顶吹穴盘苗钵体而不顶盘,根据亚声速自由气体射流动力学原理计算表明:当气嘴口空气射流压力大于0.098 MPa,不超过0.235 MPa时,所设计的气嘴能将穴盘苗吹松而不破坏苗钵根土结构。开展气力顶钵松脱多因素试验研究,结果表明气流喷射压力高度显著影响苗钵完整率,钵体含水率对完整率影响显著,其他苗龄、气流回路流量、气嘴头有无海绵密封等试验因素没有统计学显著性影响。当气嘴回路中气流喷射压力控制为0.2 MPa,钵体含水率为55%～60%,黄瓜苗龄为25 d,气流回路全开,气嘴没有海绵头铺垫时,对穴盘苗顶吹作用达到既能将穴盘苗钵体顶松脱离穴孔壁粘附,又最大程度保证钵体完整度的效果。开展验证性试验,苗钵气力松脱完整率达到96%以上,完成整盘苗放松约48s,满足实际需要。该研究可为开发省力的穴盘苗钵放松装置和边松脱边取苗的高效无损自动取苗机构提供参考。

For transplanting vegetables plug seedlings, it is difficult to directly pick up seedlings from the tray cells. Damages of root lumps of plug seedling happen all the time in extracting. In this paper, a root lump loosening mechanism using air jets to eject vegetable plug seedlings making for transplanting was designed and evaluated. It consisted of air jets, a linear module, a double-rod cylinder, a control system and some other supporting parts. The step transmission of the air jet along the horizontal direction was performed using the linear module, which was a synchronous belt system. The air jet′ motion along the vertical direction up and down for ejecting plug seedlings was moved by the double-rod cylinder. For high blowing rates, wholes rows of air jets aiming for each drain hole was designed. In this arrangement, the seedlings could be loosened row by row. With a row of air jets blowing the seedling plugs from the drain holes of the tray cells, air pressures along with the force of the plungers effectively loosened seedlings. It would be good for manual pulling seedlings or automatically picking up seedlings from the tray cells. Based on the integrated design and analysis, the air pressure range of succeeding in loosening seedling plugs was 0.098-0.235 MPa using the air jet at the diameter of 5 mm. Under this condition, the seedlings appeared to be most effective in the loosening and not in destroy of the root soil. Meanwhile, the air jet could eject each drain hole at the bottom of the 128-cell tray. Being the first prototype, its optimal machine parameters were examined under various conditions. In the optimum tests, it was found that the air pressure of the air jet plungers exerted the greatest effect on the integrated ratio in loosening seedling plugs, and followed by the moisture content. Other factors such as the seedling age, the air flow rate and the air jet with sponges or not had no significant effects on the integrated ratio in loosening seedling plugs. In reality, it would probably be a moderate air blast for blowing of the plug seedlings from the tray. If the moisture content of root lumps of the plug seedlings was less than 55%, the cohesion forces between the roots and the tray cell walls would increase. In this case, wetting the roots might serve to reduce the adhesion making for blowing. For cucumbers seedlings, when the air pressure of the air jet plungers was 0.2 MPa, the root zone moisture was 55%-60%, the seedling age was 25d, the airflow circuit was fully open at the outlet of 4 mm, and the air jet had no sponges, the best intact rate succeeding in loosening root lumps of plug seedlings was achieved. Finally, the overall loosening performance test was carried out. The intact rate of seedling and root lump in loosening root lumps by blowing was more than 96%. It needed about 48 s for finishing loosening the whole tray of plug seedling. The loosening mechanism using air jets to eject vegetable plug seedlings has a good performance, which can meet the actual requirements.