Abstract:Artificial feeding and orientational sorting of postharvest cabbage are inefficient, labor-intensive and high-cost. Aiming at above problems, and combined with the commercial handling technology and moment of inertia of postharvest cabbage, a monomer sorting and orientational conveying device for postharvest cabbage was developed. Firstly, Turnover and unloading of postharvest cabbages in a spatially stacked state were realized by using a cylinder. Then, the postharvest cabbages were discharged in a single layer under the action of single-layer feeding roller and curved buffer track. And monomer sorting was realized under the guidance of the limit roller and the variable pitch conveyor roller. Finally, single postharvest cabbage in stable space formed by four tapered rollers was directionally conveyed based on moment of inertia. The structure design of the key mechanisms, such as turnover and unloading mechanism, monolayer feeding and buffer mechanism, monomer sorting mechanism with variable pitch, orientational conveying mechanism with tapered roller, was carried out. And the prototype of the monomer sorting and orientational conveying device for postharvest cabbage was trial produced. Taking “Zhonggan 15” cabbage as test material, the orthogonal test was carried out with running speed of unloading cylinder, revolving speed of single-layer feeding roller, revolving speed of variable pitch conveyor roller and line speed of conveying chain as the test factors, and the success rate of monomer sorting and the success rate of orientation as the test indexes. The results showed that the optimal parameters of running speed of unloading cylinder, revolving speed of single-layer feeding roller, revolving speed of variable pitch conveyor roller and line speed of conveying chain were 10mm/s, 50r/min, 30r/min and 300mm/s, respectively. Under the condition of the optimal parameter combination, the average success rate of monomer sorting was (96.50±2.54)%, the average success rate of orientation was (95.17±3.28)%, and the single-channel operation efficiency was about 1004kg/h, which met the operation requirements of subsequent links such as root trimming, detecting and grading. The research results provided a reference for further research and development of multi-channel high-throughput monomer sorting and orientational conveying device, and the mechanization operation of commercial handling for postharvest cabbage.