Improvement of the technological process of fiber flax pulling at swath harvesting

BACKGROUND: The most labor- and cost-intensive process in flax production is harvesting, which, depending on the technology used, takes 65–80% of labor costs, 55–75% of monetary costs and up to 40% of energy costs. Swath harvesting includes fiber flax pulling with a flax puller and simultaneous fiber flax retting in bands on the field. The agri-cycles of the technological process of fiber flax pulling per fiber are very compressed, up to 10–14 days for plants of green, early yellow ripeness, therefore, the quality of the fiber and the cost of the final product will depend on processing capacity of a puller. Pullers are specific machines, and are used only in fiber flax cultivation, therefore, the task of improving the technological process of pulling at swath harvesting of fiber flax is relevant, and the development of productive inexpensive pullers will improve the quality and economic performance of the process. AIM: Improvement of the technological process of pulling at swath harvesting of flax by means of applying a new patentable technical solution. METHODS: The object of the study was domestic and imported machines developed by scientific, educational, and production organizations for the threshing of long-staple flax during separate harvesting. A patent search and comparative analysis of existing machines and units were conducted. The study was based on data from online resources, information materials from Russian scientific, educational, and industrial organizations, and product catalogs from the main manufacturers of shearing machines for the period from 04.2023 to 04.2024. The selection of data was based on statistical data from Rosstat and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation on the availability and use of machines for flax threshing during the reporting period. The advantages and disadvantages of the machine designs and their components were noted. Based on the obtained data, the technological process of flax threshing was improved, and the economic feasibility of the technical solution was assessed. RESULTS: A study of the state of the issue of fiber flax pulling at two-phase harvesting, patent search and analysis of existing machines and units revealed that the main disadvantage is low processing capacity, as well as reliability at high production cost, which directly affects the technological process of pulling. The use of system analysis and economic justification made it possible to solve the task by creating a high-tech trailed machine for flax pulling. CONCLUSION: As a result of the technical solutions adopted to improve the technological process of flax pulling at swath harvesting, a trailed fiber flax puller has been developed, which allows improving the quality of the technological process, as well as reducing the cost of the final product.