Design and Experimental Optimization of Pineapple Leaf Fiber Extractor

• The new technology and equipment for pineapple leaf fiber extraction. • Optimal result: The average fiber length is 61cm, the fiber impurity content is 6.3%. • The equipment operates stably, with an extraction efficiency reaching 200 kg/h. To address the issues of low productivity and poor fiber quality associated with existing pineapple leaf fiber extraction equipment, this paper presents the design of an automated pineapple leaf fiber extraction machine. The machine primarily consists of a fiber scraping device, a leaf feeding mechanism, and a fiber pressing device. Through kinematic and dynamic analysis of the fiber extraction process, the structural and operational parameters of key components were determined. To evaluate the operational performance of the automated extractor, a three-factor, three-level orthogonal experiment was conducted. The experimental factors were leaf feeding speed, decortication roller speed, and concave clearance, while the response indicators were average fiber length and fiber impurity content. Regression models were established to analyze the influence of each factor on machine performance, followed by parameter optimization and experimental validation. The results indicate that leaf feeding speed has a highly significant effect on fiber impurity content. Both decortication roller speed and concave clearance exhibit highly significant effects on both average fiber length and impurity content. Furthermore, the interaction between decortication roller speed and concave clearance has a highly significant effect on average fiber length. The optimized parameter combination was determined as follows: feeding speed of 0.35 m/s, decortication roller speed of 9.28 r/s, and concave clearance of 1.28 mm. Validation tests conducted with these parameters yielded average fiber length and impurity content values of 61 cm and 6.3%, respectively. The relative errors between these experimental results and the theoretically predicted optimal values were within 3.0%. This study provides a valuable reference for the design of automated pineapple leaf fiber extraction machinery.