Groundnut digger

The combination digger comprises of single piece curved blade with extension
rods welded at the rear, two disc coulters and an endless chain type pick-up
elevator-cum-shaker conveyor (rattler) having spiked rakes bolted to the chains.
Power transmission of the digger consists of a gear box, a cross drive shaft, V-
belt & pulleys and driving sprockets mounted on a shaft supported over
members of the frame. Blade, shanks, coulter forks and gear box are all clamped
to a rectangular tool bar to which are also welded two inclined side members on
which the sprocket drive shaft is supported. Roller chains of the shaker
conveyor are supported over two idler sprockets at the front end. Gauge wheels
are also provided to adjust & maintain the desired working depth. Front portion
of the shaker conveyor can be adjusted up or down with the help of a hand
lower chain. The width of cut is 1.22 m.
Principle of operation: The blade digs the crop from a 1.2 meter wide strip.
The vines are picked up and lifted by the shaker conveyor that follows blade.
The soil adhering to the roots and pods is shaken off at the conveyor and the
vines are dropped at the back in the form of a fluffy windrow. The vines are laid
up-side down, thus exposing the pods effectively to the sun. After one or two
days sun drying the vines are gathered manually and hauled to a central place
for threshing. In foreign countries, a combine is used for these operations.

Tractor PTO operated groundnut digger is quite popular in northern India for
harvesting groundnut. The machine consists of a blade, elevator-cum-pick up
reel, power transmission system, windrower attachment and fenders, gauge
wheels and coulters (Fig. 4). The front end of pick up-cum-elevator reel is
adjustable in accordance with depth of working of blade. It digs out the plant
along with groundnut. The material is moved over the conveyor; the soil is
loosened and removed. It has been designed to suit a tractor of 30 hp or more
and is being operated by PTO shaft of the tractor. The digging shovel may be
either of pointed type or conveying cutting edge type. The width of digging
shovel ranges from 50-60 cm. This machine has an average output of 0.27 ha/h.
The forward speed of digger is kept between 2.4-3.0 km/h. In order to pick and
gather the tubers dropped in a windrow behind the digger, nearly 10-12 workers
are required for continuous working of the digger.
Groundnut digger blades with corrugated roller at rear (Fig. 5) are also used in
medium and heavy soils where the corrugated roller helps in crushing the clods.
This helps in easy picking of groundnut tubers. Another simple groundnut
digger blade (Fig. 6) is also used in light soil where clod formation is not much.
Loose soil falls through the extension rods behind the blade and groundnut
tubers are left over the soil for easy picking and gathering.
A) An isometric view of Groundnut digger

B) Groundnut digger
Fig.4 Tractor Operated Groundnut digger
Fig.5 Tractor Operated Groundnut – Digging blade with corrugated roller

Fig. 6 Tractor Operated Groundnut – Digging blade