Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

A Reduced–Cost Mechanized System For Handling And Curing Mechanically–Harvested Burley Tobacco, Greg A. Camenisch, Larry G. Wells, Timothy D. Smith, George A. Duncan

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

An experimental system was tested in which mechanically harvested burley tobacco plants placed onto steel slotted receivers were retrieved from a field, transported to a field curing structure, and placed onto the structure for air curing by a single worker. The system consisted of a tractor–towed, trailer mechanism that engaged and hoisted loads of approximately 360 burley plants of approximately 1 Mg mass. Ten slotted steel rails, 3.05 m long, holding 36 notched plants were placed onto parallel wooden beams suspended at a height of 2.13 m by wooden posts set in the ground. Burley tobacco was cured in this …