scholarly journals 386 MECHANICAL ASPARAGUS HARVESTING STATUS--WORLDWIDE

HortScience ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 486d-486
Author(s):  
Dale E. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Fiber Optic ◽  
Mechanical Damage ◽  
Field Tests ◽  
Field Capacity ◽  
Labor Costs ◽  
Ground Speed ◽  
Low Field ◽  
Harvesting Costs ◽  
Green Asparagus

For over 86 years producers, processors, engineers, and equipment manufacturers have attempted to mechanize the harvest of asparagus. Over 60 U.S. patents have been issued. Probably the most sophisticated harvester tested was started in 1987 by Edgells Birdseye, Cowra, Australia. After successful field tests of the 3-row, selective (fiber optic), harvester for flat-bed green asparagus used in canning, 3 more were built at a cost of $US 4.5 million, and harvested 500 acres until 1991 when the company ceased canning. Recovery was 30 to 80% with 50% being typical. Wollogong University in Australia is now researching a selective (fiber optic), harvester for flat-bed green asparagus. It utilizes multiple side-by-side 3 in. wide by 24 in. dia. rubber gripper discs which rotate at ground speed. No harvester prototype has been commercially acceptable to the asparagus industry due to poor selectivity, low overall recovery (low yield relative to hand harvest), mechanical damage to spears, low field capacity per harvester, or overall harvesting costs that exceed those for hand harvesting. The reality may be that asparagus production will cease in the traditional geographical areas where growing costs and labor costs are high, although niche fresh markets may help some growers survive.

Laboratory and field tests of the active composite fence with integrated fiber optic modalmetric sensor and electromagnetic sensor

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konrad Brewczyński ◽  
Marek Życzkowski ◽  
Mieczyslaw Szustakowski ◽  
Łukasz Olszewski ◽  
Piotr Markowski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fiber Optic ◽  
Field Tests ◽  
Electromagnetic Sensor ◽  
Active Composite

scholarly journals Infrared Fiber-Optic Spectroscopy Detects Bovine Articular Cartilage Degeneration

Cartilage ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 194760352199322
Author(s):  
Vesa Virtanen ◽  
Ervin Nippolainen ◽  
Rubina Shaikh ◽  
Isaac O. Afara ◽  
Juha Töyräs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Support Vector Machine ◽  
Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Articular Cartilage ◽  
Fiber Optic ◽  
Mechanical Damage ◽  
Attenuated Total Reflectance ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Mid Infrared ◽  
Total Reflectance ◽  
Joint Injuries

Objective Joint injuries may lead to degeneration of cartilage tissue and initiate development of posttraumatic osteoarthritis. Arthroscopic surgeries can be used to treat joint injuries, but arthroscopic evaluation of articular cartilage quality is subjective. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy combined with fiber optics and attenuated total reflectance crystal could be used for the assessment of tissue quality during arthroscopy. We hypothesize that fiber-optic mid-infrared spectroscopy can detect enzymatically and mechanically induced damage similar to changes occurring during progression of osteoarthritis. Design Bovine patellar cartilage plugs were extracted and degraded enzymatically and mechanically. Adjacent untreated samples were utilized as controls. Enzymatic degradation was done using collagenase and trypsin enzymes. Mechanical damage was induced by (1) dropping a weight impactor on the cartilage plugs and (2) abrading the cartilage surface with a rotating sandpaper. Fiber-optic mid-infrared spectroscopic measurements were conducted before and after treatments, and spectral changes were assessed with random forest, partial least squares discriminant analysis, and support vector machine classifiers. Results All models had excellent classification performance for detecting the different enzymatic and mechanical damage on cartilage matrix. Random forest models achieved accuracies between 90.3% and 77.8%, while partial least squares model accuracies ranged from 95.8% to 84.7%, and support vector machine accuracies from 91.7% to 80.6%. Conclusions The results suggest that fiber-optic Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy is a viable way to detect minor and major degeneration of articular cartilage. Objective measures provided by fiber-optic spectroscopic methods could improve arthroscopic evaluation of cartilage damage.

Tree Size and Species, Stand Volume, and Tract Size: Effects on Southern Harvesting Costs

1989 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick W. Cubbage ◽  
W. Dale Greene ◽  
John P. Lyon
Keyword(s):  
Tree Species ◽  
Size Effects ◽  
Timber Harvesting ◽  
Tree Size ◽  
Labor Costs ◽  
Production Rates ◽  
Stand Volume ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Harvesting Costs ◽  
Significant Factors

Abstract Timber harvesting production rates and equipment and labor costs were used to estimate average logging costs for a variety of tract volumes and sizes, stand structures, and tree species. Average costs were estimated for conventional logging systems typical in the South. Regression analysiswas used to identify significant factors affecting the costs for each system. Highly mechanized systems were generally cheapest for harvesting southern pines, but were not much cheaper for harvesting hardwoods. Hardwoods were substantially more expensive to harvest, as were tracts of lessthan 250 cords in total volume. South. J. Appl. For. 13(3):145-152.

In Situ Sensing of Volatile Organic Compounds in Groundwater: First Field Tests of a Mid-Infrared Fiber-Optic Sensing System

2003 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 607-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Steiner ◽  
M. Jakusch ◽  
M. Kraft ◽  
M. Karlowatz ◽  
T. Baumann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Fiber Optic ◽  
Silver Halide ◽  
Field Tests ◽  
Reference Analysis ◽  
Mid Infrared ◽  
Sensor Head ◽  
Aquifer System ◽  
Volatile Organic

A prototype mid-infrared sensor system for the determination of volatile organic pollutants in groundwater was developed and tested under real-world conditions. The sensor comprises a portable Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, coupled to the sensor head via mid-infrared transparent silver halide fiber-optic cables. A 10 cm unclad middle section of the 6-m-long fiber is coated with ethylene propylene copolymer in order to enrich the analytes within the penetration depth of the evanescent field protruding from the fiber sensor head. A mixture of tetrachloroethylene, dichlorobenzene, diethyl phthalate, and xylene isomers at concentrations in the low ppm region was investigated qualitatively and quantitatively in an artificial aquifer system filled with Munich gravel. This simulated real-world site at a pilot scale enables in situ studies of the sensor response and spreading of the pollutants injected into the system with controlled groundwater flow. The sensor head was immersed into a monitoring well of the aquifer system at a distance of 1 m downstream of the sample inlet and at a depth of 30 cm. Within one hour, the analytes were clearly identified in the fingerprint region of the IR spectrum (1300 to 700 cm−1). The results have been validated by head-space gas chromatography, using samples collected during the field measurement. Five out of six analytes could be discriminated simultaneously; for two of the analytes the quantitative results are in agreement with the reference analysis.

Testing of a Dual Field Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) Inspection Tool for Detecting and Characterizing Mechanical Damage Features

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Rubinshteyn ◽  
Steffen Paeper ◽  
Bruce Nestleroth
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Magnetic Flux ◽  
Residual Stresses ◽  
High Field ◽  
Mechanical Damage ◽  
Magnetic Flux Leakage ◽  
Low Field ◽  
Field Unit ◽  
Low Magnetic Field ◽  
Flux Leakage

Battelle has developed dual field magnetic flux leakage (MFL) technology for the detection and characterization of mechanical damage to pipelines. The basic principle involves the use of a high magnetic field between 140 and 180 Oersted (11.1 to 14.3 kA/m) and the use of a low magnetic field between 50 and 70 Oersted (4 to 5.6 kA/m). At high magnetic field levels, the flux leakage signal is primarily influenced by changes in the geometry of a pipe wall. At low magnetic field levels, the MFL signal is due to residual stresses and metallurgical changes as well as geometry changes to the pipe caused by mechanical damage and wall thinning. A decoupling signal processing method developed by Battelle is used to isolate the portion of the mechanical damage signals due to metallurgical damage and residual stresses, which allows the characteristics of a dent-gouge feature to be more clearly differentiated. The decoupling method involves first scaling down the high field signal to the level of the low field signal, and then subtracting it from the low field signal. This produces a decoupled signal that is primarily influenced by the residual stresses and metallurgical changes caused by mechanical damage. Rosen has developed a tool to test the dual field technology and is evaluating tool performance by running the tool in a 30 inch diameter pipeline segment. The tool itself is composed of three separate modules coupled together: a high field unit downstream of a low field unit which is downstream of a caliper arm unit that is used to detect and characterize reductions in the internal diameter. The general and magnetic design of the tool, along with the scaling algorithm is discussed. Results from a pull test in a pipe section with dents whose geometry has been independently characterized are also discussed. This work is partially funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety administration (DOT PHMSA) and the Pipeline Research Council International, Inc. (PRCI).

LOCATE OBJECTS MECHANICAL DAMAGE BASED ON FIBER-OPTIC COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 117-126
Author(s):  
Baxtiyor Nematovich Rakhimov ◽  
◽  
Boburjon Zukhridin ugli Abduhalilov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Communication Systems ◽  
Fiber Optic ◽  
Mechanical Damage ◽  
Fiber Optic Communication ◽  
Optic Communication

scholarly journals Performance Evaluation of the BRRI Reaper and Chinese Reaper Compared to Manual Harvesting of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-150
Author(s):  
Mahbubul Alam Zami ◽  
Md. Altaf Hossain ◽  
M A Sayed ◽  
B K Biswas ◽  
M A Hossain
Keyword(s):  
Oryza Sativa ◽  
Production Cost ◽  
Walking Speed ◽  
Field Capacity ◽  
Average Field ◽  
Purchase Price ◽  
Labor Requirements ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
Harvesting Costs ◽  
Study Performance

Introduction of appropriate machinery is one of the major factors for reducing time and labor requirements, production cost and also to help fit another crop in between successive two crops. In this study, performance of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) developed self-propelled reaper and an imported Chinese reaper were evaluated for rice harvesting and were compared with manual harvesting. The experiment was conducted at BRRI Regional station in Rajshahi and Rangpur during Boro 2012-13. Average field capacity of the BRRI reaper was 0.250 ha/hr and that of Chinese reaper was 0.203 ha/hr. The average field capacity of manual harvesting was 0.004 ha/hr. Labour requirements for rice harvesting including bundle making were 248 man-hr/ha, 69 man-hr/ha and 68 man-hr/ha for manual, Chinese reaper and BRRI reaper, respectively. On an average, 72 and 03% labour was saved by the BRRI reaper over those of manual harvesting and Chinese reaper, respectively. Harvesting costs were saved by BRRI reaper and Chinese reaper about 68 and 61%, respectively over that of manual harvesting. Average fuel consumption of Chinese reaper and BRRI reaper were 0.727 and 0.826 l/hr, respectively. The walking speed of BRRI reaper (3.78 km/hr) was 62% higher than that of Chinese reaper (2.33 km/hr). The purchase price of imported reaper is almost double than that of BRRI reaper. The BRRI reaper was, therefore, considered as a better machine for harvesting rice in Bangladesh.The Agriculturists 2014; 12(2) 142-150

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