VIBRATORY HARVESTING MACHINE FOR BOXTHORN (Lycium chinense MILL) BERRIES

Physical and mechanical characteristics of boxthorn berries, strength properties of berrystem joints, anddetachment efficiencies of berries with various vibration characteristics were analyzed. From results of the studies above,a mechanical harvester with a handheld shaker, a collecting system, and a traveling system was developed and its harvestingrate was evaluated. The detachment force of the mature berries was 2.7 times lower than the immature berries, and theforcetoweight ratio was significantly different between the mature and immature berries among 12 varieties. The mostdesirable shaking conditions, which showed the highest detachment efficiency of the mature berries, were frequencies from94.2 to 125.7 rad/s, amplitudes from 25 to 35 mm, and a shaking time of 3 s with an experimental vibration system. Thethroughput capacity of the boxthorn harvester was about 4717 g/h, and it was around 4.2 times higher than hand picking.