Analysis of the strength of an innovative design of an organic farming potato harvester

Small organic farms still use potato lifters for harvesting. This harvesting technology involves a lot of work because potatoes need to be picked manually. The aim of this study was to design an innovative organic farming potato harvester aggregated with a 38 kW tractor and to analyse its strength with the finite element method (FEM). The research assumption was to fit the innovative construction with a potato basket in order to minimise the labour consumption of organic potato cultivation. The project involved analytical calculations of the strength, which were followed by the design of a CAD model and a detailed strength analysis with the FEM. Autodesk Inventor and Femap were the programs used to aid the design of the machine. The designed model had no nodes where stresses would be greater than 32% of the maximum allowable stress in the material structure and 43% of the maximum allowable stress in the structure of welds. The innovative design of the potato harvester developed in this study can be used with all tractors (farm and orchard tractors) equipped with a three-point linkage.