Original Articles
Vol. 57 No. 1 (2026)
https://doi.org/10.4081/jae.2025.1409

Simulation and experiment of the screening device for differential speed round belt conveyor of broccoli pieces

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Received: 17 March 2022
Accepted: 27 July 2022
Published: 1 December 2025
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broccoli pieces, differential round belt, motion simulation, screening device, movement trajectory

Authors

Chennan Yu
School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University; Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Intelligent Sensing and Robotics for Agriculture, Hangzhou, China.
Xinyao Wang
School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, China.
Yonghong Wu
School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, China.
Limin Liu
Zhejiang Technical Institute of Economics, Hangzhou, China.
Yuanxiang Xu
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8572-8951
School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, China.
Tianlong Chen
School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, China.
Xudong Xia
School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University; Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Intelligent Sensing and Robotics for Agriculture, Hangzhou, China.
Jianneng Chen
jiannengchen@zstu.edu.cn
School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University; Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Intelligent Sensing and Robotics for Agriculture, Hangzhou, China.

The selection of broccoli pieces is an important step in the processing of broccoli, but the existing screening institutions are prone to mis-screening and the screening effect is mediocre. Therefore, a differential round belt screening mechanism is proposed, which aims to screen out the flower pieces with a size greater than 70 mm after the first dicing process and send them to the secondary dicing device, and through the differential mechanism to adjust the posture of the flower piece, so as to improve the correct rate of selection and improve the efficiency of broccoli processing. Screening kinematics analysis model of the differential round belt is performed, and the speed range of the differential round belt is calculated. A three-dimensional model of the broccoli differential round belt screening device is established based on solid works, and motion simulations of flower piece close crossing, flower piece stacking and flower piece selection are performed based on the solid works. The best differential speed is determined according to the simulation results. The differential speed of the two belts is 0.3m/s and 0.6m/s. A broccoli differential round belt screening device was developed and tested, and the best operating parameters are determined. The corresponding screening success rate is as high as 98.1%, indicating that the differential round belt conveying and screening broccoli pieces is feasible and effective.

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“Simulation and experiment of the screening device for differential speed round belt conveyor of broccoli pieces” (2025) Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 57(1). doi:10.4081/jae.2025.1409.
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