Design and application of rapid hanging tobacco clamping device for bulk curing barn

In order to reduce the labor and cost of tobacco loading for flue curing,a set of rapid hanging tobacco clamping device was designed on the basis of manual tobacco tying,tobacco clamp and loose leaf loading.The device was composed of curved needles,bars to press tobacco leaves,screwed lockers,hooks for hanging tobacco clamps and a frame.Tobacco was brought together to a definite position by the frame rather than by spring or external force during loading.The devices with carried tobacco were hooked on to the sticks in curing barn,so that tobacco distributed in curing barn evenly and loosely.A comparative experiment between the designed device and conventional tobacco clamps was conducted,the results showed that:1) Rapid hanging tobacco clamping device featured less temperature differences both in vertical and horizontal directions in a curing barn,kept uniform tobacco yellowing and dehydrating rates,and promoted the quality of cured tobacco.2) Labor cost decreased,the proportion of orange leaves in cured leaves raised by 11.7%,and the average price of cured leaves increased by 1.8 RMB yuan/kg.3) The sensory evaluation indicated that the aroma quality,aroma quantity and strength of cured leaves were higher than those cured via conventional tobacco clamps.