Separation of tomato seeds for breeding research

   Relevance. To achieve the required level of self-sufficiency in vegetable products, it is necessary to provide their producers with appropriate technical and technological support. To solve this problem, it is necessary to introduce innovative technologies for the production of vegetable products, as well as to provide the necessary amount of modern high-performance machinery and equipment. Of particular importance is the mechanization of breeding research with tomatoes. increasing the efficiency of tomato seed selection by improving technical solutions and design features of the machine, aimed at reducing the energy intensity of the process and increasing productivity.

   Material and Methodology. A machine for separating seeds from selection lots of tomatoes, comprising a frame, an electric motor, a V-belt drive, a hopper, a shaft, auger, beaters, a sieve, a casing, a shield, a collector, a tray of separator sections and a seed extractor. The separator and seed extractor sections are mounted on a common frame and are equipped with drives for the drive shafts via a V-belt drive from one electric motor. To regulate the efficiency of the machine, a propeller is installed behind the separator auger at an angle β, followed by two pairs of successively arranged flail bars with fixed advance angles α₁ and α₂. The seed extractor has a cylindrical auger on the drive shaft and four flails installed in pairs with the ability to regulate the advance angle α₃. For theoretical studies, an equivalent-force diagram of the auger of the receiving chamber of the machine for separating seeds from fruits of tomato selection lots was developed to determine the cutting force of the auger edge with intermittent turns of cutting tomato fruits by the auger edge and theoretical developments were taken into account to substantiate the design and operating parameters of a chopper with a zigzag arrangement of knives in the cutting apparatus.

   Results. It is shown that the calculated cutting force of tomato fruits by the loading auger of the separator of the machine for extracting seeds from breeding lots depends on the state of the edges of the turns. With cut segments on the turns in the considered range of strength characteristics of the tomato skin, it is lower than with solid ones. With cut segments, it changes from 55 N to 200 N, and with solid ones from 80 N to 280 N, which on average shows a decrease of 30 %. The values of the free fall height of tomatoes from the hopper onto the auger with a solid edge and the proposed cut segments are given to optimize the efficiency of the machine for extracting tomato seeds in a continuous mode.

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