Avaliação da regulagem do freio dos vibradores de colhedoras na eficiência de derriça do café

• Ano de defesa: 2011
• Autor(a) principal: Sales, Ronan Souza
• Orientador(a): Silva, Fábio Moreira da
• Banca de defesa: Volpato, Carlos Eduardo Silva, Carvalho, Gladyston Rodrigues
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE LAVRAS
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: DEG - Departamento de Engenharia
• País: BRASIL
• Palavras-chave em Português: Café; Mecanização; Torque dos cilindros vibradores; Mechanisation; Coffee; Torque of the vibrating columns
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ_NÃO_INFORMADO
• Link de acesso: https://repositorio.ufla.br/handle/1/3604

Currently, the Brazilian coffee sector experiences a transitional moment, in which its harvesting process starts changing to a mechanised one, ranging from quasi to overly mechanisation in some cases. However, this change also implies an increasing demand for technology usage related to the mechanical harvesting such as the operational speed, vibration frequency, and the amount and distribution of the shaker fingers. Specifically, an adjustment of the torque of the columns might be needed for it regulates the power with which the shaker fingers pick the coffee off the tree. So far, this torque adjustment has been made intuitively by varying the force vector so that the columns do not rotate freely when the vibration is turned on. Therefore, this work aimed at assessing how this adjustment influences the coffee stripping efficiency and what eventual damages does it cause on a coffee plantation as function of the torque, operational speed, and vibration frequency. The experiment was conducted at the São Pedro de Alcântara coffee farm, located in Ibiá town, Triângulo Mineiro/Alto Paranaíba. The trials took place during the 2010 harvest of crops of the coffee cultivar Catuaí Vermelho IAC 144. In trials, it was employed the completely randomized design, with three repetitions in random parcels, each containing nine trees. The results suggest that it is possible to establish an objective method for the torque adjustment of the vibrating columns. Seemly, it was also possible to establish parameters for a more efficient (with lower defoliation rates) and cost effective adjustment of a mechanised harvest. The most efficient stripping rates were obtained with torque adjustments of 42,89 N.m in the columns, 1,6 km.h-1 of operational speed, and a vibration frequency of 15,8 Hz. These parameters resulted in strip rates of 90,38 and 98,99 % of coffee berries in the first and in the second harvested seasons respectively The highest defoliation levels were met at 1,0 km.h-1 speed rate, with a 53,61 and 64,33 N.m torque adjustment of the columns, respectively in the two harvested periods in study.