An experimental investigation of performance levels in a new root crown cleaner

For the purposes of carrying out field experiments using the vertical-type cleaner with its elastic cleaning blades to remove haulm residues from the crowns of standing roots, the programme for this process and the technique behind it have both been developed by basing the process on the measurement of the volume of haulm residues that are left on the root crowns after they have been cleaned by a cleaning tool that operates at pre-set values in terms of its translational velocity, its height above the soil surface, and its rate of revolution. In addition, the cleaner’s energy-and-force performance has also been determined. In this process, the new laboratory and the field experimental unit have been put together. The unit comprises a rear-mounted root crown cleaner of the rotary type with a vertical axis of rotation. During the field experiments, the general-purpose tractor which carries it moves at a pre-set velocity as registered by the track measuring wheel; the general height of the cleaning tool’s position is set within the specified range by the use of two pneumatic feeler wheels that are equipped with adjustment mechanisms. The results of the completed investigations have been statistically processed with the use of the regression analysis and correlation analysis methods. On the basis of the developed multiple-factor experiment technique, empirical mathematical models have been generated in the form of regression equations for the process of cleaning the crown’s of sugar beet roots. In accordance with the results of the calculations, it has been established that the translational velocity of the implement has the greatest level of impact on the volume of haulm residue that remains on the spherical surfaces of root crowns after cleaning. The rate of rotation for the vertical cleaning rotor and its height above the soil surface which are controlled by the two pneumatic feeler wheels have a lesser effect on the process under consideration.