Experimental Study on the Peeling Fracture Effect of Fresh Corn Ear Based on High and Low Roller Peeling Equipment

Abstract

Aiming to address the problems of low working efficiency and high damage rate of high and low roller peeling equipment in the process of fresh corn harvesting in China, this paper theoretically analyzes the mechanical motion process between the peeling device and the corn ear, and a high–low roll peeling structure is proposed. This structure incorporates elastomeric rubber material, a roller segmentation design, and an adjustable spiral frame, and the selection of relevant parameters is given. To determine the optimal operating parameters for the fresh-corn-peeling device, a three-factor, three-level orthogonal test was conducted using the Box–Behnken central grouping method in Design-Expert 12 software. The test factors were peeling roller speed, peeling roller tilt angle, and vibrating plate frequency. The evaluation indices considered were the bract peeling rate (BPR) and the grain breaking rate (GBR). Based on the theoretical analysis results, a test bench for the fresh-corn-ear-peeling device was established and the parameter combination for optimal peeling quality was determined according to the actual work situation. The results show that the impact on the BPR and GBR, from large to small, is in the following order: peeling roller speed, peeling roller tilt angle, and frequency vibration plate. The optimization module was used to optimize the operating parameters and used the following integers to obtain the optimal operating parameter combination: the peeling roller speed was 480 r·min−1; the peeling roller tilt angle was 8°; the vibrating plate frequency was 260 times·min−1; the corresponding BPR was 91.75%, which was 0.66% points lower than the optimal value; and the GBR was 1.55%, which was 0.08% points higher than the optimal value. Notably, this fresh-corn-peeling equipment exhibited superior performance in terms of peeling fracture results compared with standard peeling equipment. Therefore, this study provides valuable technical support for the optimal design and selection of fresh-corn-peeling equipment.