Design and development of the Pik Rite chili pepper harvester: a collaborative project with the university, industry, and government

This paper describes a collaborative effort by Bucknell and a Pennsylvania-based company, Pik Rite, to develop a new machine for automating the harvesting of chili peppers. The Bucknell design team consisted of seven mechanical engineering undergraduate students: four seniors, two juniors, and one sophomore. Pik Rite manufactures automated tomato harvesters and cucumber harvesters with an international customer base. The goal of the project was to develop the chili pepper harvester by adapting the technology from the current tomato picker and to use as many of the same parts as possible. After studying the chili pepper fields in New Mexico, the Bucknell design team was assigned three main tasks for which the students broke into smaller teams. One task was to perform a deflection and vibration analysis of the current tomato harvester frame and suggest improvements for use with the chili pepper harvester. The second was to redesign a component of the tomato harvester called the split header to better accommodate the growing environment for chili peppers. The third was to design an enclosed cab to house six workers on the harvester and protect them from the harsh environment of the desert southwest. This paper describes each of these tasks in detail and how the Bucknell design team contributed to the development of the Pik Rite chili pepper harvester that was sold for the fall 1998 harvesting season.