The typical maize-growing area in Tancheng was selected as the experimental area, and traditional round rollers, multi-angled rollers, and rigid-flexible coupled rollers were selected for field comparative experiments. The results showed that the rigid-flexible coupled roller performed better in reducing the grain breakage rate, drop rate, and improving the fruit ear integrity rate, and had certain advantages in energy consumption control and operation efficiency. The results of orthogonal experiments and variance analysis indicated that the roller speed and roller gap had significant effects on the loss reduction effect, with the optimal combination being a roller speed of 950 r/min and a roller gap of 30 mm. The mechanism analysis showed that the flexible buffer layer could effectively disperse the impact force, improve the force state of the fruit ear, and thereby reduce the risk of grain damage. This study provided theoretical basis and practical reference for the structural optimization and parameter matching of the ear-threshing device of maize harvesters.

maize harvester  /  ear-threshing roller  /  structural optimization  /  loss reduction mechanism