Haskaop Harvester
Abstract
When haskaop berries were harvested by vacuum suction, trash such as leaves was collected together. In order to separate haskaop berries from other materials during harvest, a vertical separation column (mean air velocity was 4 ms-1) was designed and built, as described earlier. In this paper, a portable and prototypical haskaop harvester was designed and built with this separation column. The results showed that the average harvest speed by handpicking was 0.45 berries/s (1 kg/h) and that by the harvester was 2.5 berries/s (6 kg/h). A soft plastic sheet (2 mm thick) was the most feasible as a material for rake fingers. The best shape for the harvester collection scoop employed a pitch of fingers at 12 mm and height 5 mm. The percentage of damaged berries by handpicking was nearly 0%, but that by the harvester was generally acceptable at 4%. Berries never found their way into the exhaust (dust) hopper.