Design, Construction and Evaluation of a Suitable Machine for Picking Safflower Petals

Safflower, a plant compatible with dry and semi-arid regions, is cultivated for its seeds and petals. In this study, a harvesting machine was designed and constructed for harvesting safflower (Goldasht cultivar) petals. The harvesting machine had cutting blade, vacuum motor, flexible tube, motor holder box and bag, an electric motor and a chassis for moving in the field. In order to evaluate the machine, from the point of  harvesting time and the rate of losses, a field experiment was conducted using completely randomized block design with three replications.  Experimental levels included air vacuum rate at low, medium, and high levels: 19 m/s (air velocity) and 3500 rpm (engine rotational speed); 25 m/s (air velocity) and 4000 rpm (engine rotational speed); and 36 m/s (air velocity) and 4800 rpm (engine rotational speed) respectivly;  and manual harvesting by the labors (control). The results showed that harvesting time had a significant difference at 1% level at three levels of vacuum rate. The lowest time for harvesting was recorded in third level,  the maximum time for harvesting safflower was recorded in manual harvesting method. The loss of safflower, comparing with  manual harvesting, was reduced up to 79.1%,  93.09%, and 94.9% when level 1, 2, and 3 were used, respectivly. This machine could harvest 3 to 4 kilograms of safflower petals in 8 hours