Design, Development and Analysis of Combined Onion Harvester with Leaf Topper Machine

Abstract

India is the second largest producer of onion crop as per the data found from the National Horticulture Board. The onion harvesting by the manual method is very time consuming, costly and full of drudgery. The post-harvesting process involves leaf cutting operation which is lengthy and time-consuming as well. Labour scarcity in some of the onion growing regions is also a big problem. To overcome these problems related to onion harvesting and post-harvesting process mechanization of onions are essentially needed. These onions are required to be stored for long-term use so that quality of the bulb during harvesting stage is good enough to resist infections during storage. The main objective of the project is to design and develop tractor front mounted onion harvester machine along with leaf topper. Both the process i.e. onion digging and leaf cutting are combined in the same machine in successive operations. The new model developed can be used in different kind of farm fields irrespective of soil conditions efficiently. An initial survey of typical onion farm field has been done followed by literature review, design concept generation, concept selection, the design of different parts of the machine, design modification as per field testing. The basic design model is prepared using 3D CAD software SolidWorks. The machine developed can also be used as garlic harvester and potato harvester with less modification or use of extra attachments. The field trial of the developed machine is taken which revealed that development work achieves the intended purpose.