On the issue of increasing the efficiency of the spindles of a vertical-spindle cotton picker

This article is devoted to the issue of increasing the efficiency of vertical-spindle cotton pickers by rational choice of kinematic and geometrical parameters of the main working body – the spindle drum. In particular, in the work, an analysis of the actual operating conditions of the spindles, existing machines, and the results of previous studies in this area indicate the main reasons for the low efficiency of cotton pickers. As a criterion for evaluating the efficiency of the vertical spindles, the “activity” of the spindles and the force that occurs between the cotton boll and the surface of the latter are taken. It is shown that the design features of the existing vertical spindle drums do not allow increasing the active surface of the spindles and their favorable orientation relative to cotton bolls in the collection area. It is substantiated that in order to increase the activity of the spindles in the collection zone, it is necessary to inform them, as they move in this zone, of the variable speed and trajectory of the spindle movement, which improves the conditions for the interaction of the latter with the cotton boll. The obtained results are compared and analyzed with the same results of the existing spindle drums, which showed a significant increase in the activity of the spindles when using elliptical drums as the main working body of the cotton picker.