Epi-and hypo-cyclic spindle drives of a cotton harvester
Abstract
The article is devoted to the development of a more efficient technological scheme of a vertical-spindle cotton harvester with pair wise and sequentially located spindle drums. The analysis of the existing technological process of this harvesting device with hypo- and epi-cyclic spindle drives is conducted. The fact of insufficient orientation of the active surface of the spindle to the cotton capture from cotton plants when it enters the working chamber is stated. On the basis of a priori information, the process of removing cotton from the spindles is studied when the direction of rotation of the spindles is changed; and a technological scheme with epi-and hypo-cyclic planetary drives for the rollers of the working bodies is proposed. In order to model the process in the working chamber of the apparatus, a calculation scheme and analytical expressions were drawn up to determine the values and directions of the vectors of the absolute and active velocities of the spindle teeth since the activity of the spindle surface is one of the main criteria for assessing the performance of a cotton harvester during its production.