Reducing the Energy Intensity of Grape Vine Shredding Using a Picker-Shredder

The study aimed to substantiate approaches for lowering energy intensity and to determine the technical and technological performance parameters of operating modes for the shredding unit of a grapevine picker-shredder. The analysis included calculations of the angular velocity of a shredding knife hinged to a drum and the knife’s destructive velocity during impact on the vine. To determine the coordinates XC and YC of the center of gravity C and the moment of inertia J of the knife, the authors created its solid model in the KOMPAS-SD software. At a distance r = 0.05 m from the rotation axis O of the drum to the rotation axis O1 of the knife, the knife can perform up to 10 cuts of vine with a diameter of 9.3 mm per drum revolution, whereas at r = 0.1 m it can perform up to 18 cuts. The derived relationships guided the development of a prototype machine for field picking and shredding of grapevine residues during 2023–2024 in interrows of young and fruit-bearing vineyards of the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot cultivars with a row spacing of 3 m under the conditions of the Republic of Crimea. The shredding unit operated with a drum radius (R = 0.52 m), hammer mass (m = 0.5 kg), hammer length (L = 0.10 m), number of hammers (k = 32 units), number of counter-cutting grids (2 units), and drum working width (1.5 m). The optimal operating parameters of the machine were as follows: picker shaft rotational speed of 400 rpm, shredding drum rotational speed of 2100 rpm, machine travel speed of 1.2 m/s, technological clearance for picker flails of 30–60 mm, and technological clearance for shredder knives of 150–200 mm. Vine pickup completeness reached 95% with an average length of shredded cuttings of 8.0 cm. The average length of shredded cuttings equaled 80 mm at a vine pickup completeness of 95%. Machine productivity increased by a factor of 1.4, while the energy intensity of the shredding process decreased by a factor of 1.1.