Design and Application of the Mobile Hanging Tobacco Leaf Loading Rack as a Curing Equipment

In order to reduce labor and energy during tobacco leaf curing, the curing equipment mobile hanging tobacco leaf loading rack was designed and manufactured integrating the advantages of hydraulic technology, the comb type clamp equipment and the large box equipment. Effects of the new equipment on weight of fresh leaves per barn, efficiency of plaiting, loading, unloading and unlashing, cost of labor force, the energy cost, grades and smoking quality of cured tobacco leaves were investigated. The results indicated that compared with the comb type clamp equipment and the traditional pole equipment, by using the new equipment, the weight of fresh leaves per barn was increased 27.9% and 49.8% respectively. The time cost of plaiting and loading were reduced by 1.23 and 1.93 h·person/100 kg respectively. The time cost of unloading and unlashing were reduced by 3.95 and 6.43 h·person/100 kg respectively. The labor cost fell 1.30 and 2.17 Yuan per kg leaf respectively. The energy cost fell 0.22 Yuan and 0.3 Yuan per kg leaf respectively. Grades and smoking quality of cured tobacco leaves were slightly worse than that of the traditional pole equipment, but were almost the same as that of the comb type clamp equipment.