WAYS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF COMBING WHEN HARVESTING SOYBEANS

Abstract

The use of combing headers for soy harvesting is a promising direction for improving the harvesting process. The method of combing standing crops will reduce the harvest time by increasing working speed, improve the product quality by reducing grain crushing, and minimize the anthropogenic impact of harvesters on the soil because of their reduced number and weight of their working units as compared to harvesters with conventional threshing-and-separating units. This modification will provide livestock industry with cheap feed resulting from grain-soybean heap processing. The purpose of the study was to design and improve technical means for harvesting soybeans with the method of combing. Research was conducted on the "Lazurnaya" soybean variety. The results of soybean weighing and the composition of the grain-soybean heap are presented. The obtained experimental data show a decrease in the loss from the non-combed fraction at increased combing drum speed and reduced ground speed, but this is accompanied by significantly increased loss of soybeans. To improve the quality of soybean harvesting using the combing method, promising solutions for the modernization of the combing headers are considered: installation of an additional beater, which will prevent unwinding of the uncombed parts of the soybean stalks on the drum and their subsequent breaking off; integration of a sieve into a combing header design to reduce the amount of impurities; the use of hinges to attach the comb to the drum and the stopper, which help prevent accidental contact of the comb with the field surface.