An Integrated Potato-Planting Machine with Full-Film Mulching and Ridged Row Soil Covering
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
In order to realize the agronomic requirements of furrow cultivation with full mulch film coverage, an integrated potato planter with full-film covering, micro-ditch on ridges and soil covering of seed rows was designed. The structure and working parameters of the seeding system, the pointed wing-shaped trencher, and the straddling film mulching device were determined, and the operation mechanism of the important components was analyzed. Finally, the field performance test was carried out, and the test results met the design requirements. While the results are promising, hopefully the author can address the following comments and questions:
1. The abstract needs to be revised. In the field experiments, the test results of the integrated potato planting machine with full-film covering, micro-ditch on ridges and soil covering of seed rows met the design requirements, and the practical significance of the machine for farmers, industry stakeholders, and future machine development was not further discussed. It is recommended that the author supplement and enrich the manuscript.
2. Considering that the author emphasizes in the introduction that the cultivation agronomic of covering the furrow with plastic film in the whole area of the potato planting process, how does the proposed integrated potato planting machine with full-film covering, micro-ditch on ridges and soil covering of seed rows with seed row cover solve this problem, and how does it improve the existing technology in terms of efficiency and economic benefits?
3. In the introduction, the author does not specify the specific model of the potato planter produced by the Italian company Spedo, and it is recommended to check and supplement.
4. In the design of the main working parts (Section 3.1), the working width B of the fertilizer discharge system is 1200mm, but in the actual calculation, the working width B is taken as 1.28m. There is a problem with the value of the working width B in the actual calculation, and the unit expression is inconsistent before and after, so it is recommended that the author carefully check and modify it.
5. In the design of the main working parts (Section 3.2.2), the computer software used by the author should indicate the version number when the simulation test of the arching process of the potato seed box is carried out. For example, the 3D model of seed potatoes is drawn by SoildWorks software, and the software version number is not indicated, so it is recommended to supplement it.
6. There are some places where there are problems with the format. For example, if there are extra spaces before the words in line 147 and line 204, and the font size of the legend in Figure 6 is different from that in Table 1, etc., the author of similar problems needs to carefully check and supplement in the whole manuscript.
7. In line 452, what is the meaning of the parameter p in the equation 10 given by the author?
8. There are problems with some pictures. For example, Figure 3 is small in size and lacks clarity in the manuscript. A similar question arises in Figure 5, suggesting that authors need to provide higher quality images according to the "Instructions to Authors".
Comments on the Quality of English Language
When the author uses abbreviations or terms to represent a certain meaning, he or she shall give the full name when it is first proposed, and the abbreviation shall be included in parentheses. For example, EDEM, etc., authors with similar questions need to check the entire manuscript.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
This paper designs an integrated potato planting machine with full-film covering, micro-ditch on ridges and soil covering of seed rows, analyzes and designs the key components of the prototype, determines the relevant structure and working parameters, and carries out an in-depth analysis of the operating mechanism of the core components, which is innovative and of engineering value to a certain extent, but there are still some problems that need to be modified.
(1)The paper has a more comprehensive summary of the current status of research at home and abroad, but does not highlight the importance of the research theme of this paper, and it is recommended to strengthen the significance of the connection with this paper.
(2) Please give the operation schematic diagram in part 2.3.
(3) The data in Table 2 should be standardized in terms of the number of valid decimal places, and it is recommended that one valid digit be retained for all of them.
(4) Figure 12 (b), the picture is not clear enough to convey its meaning .
(5) The experimental results of this paper are suggested to be compared with similar research data to reflect the creativity of the research in this paper.
Comments on the Quality of English Language
Requires minor editing of English
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
Hello!
I read with interest the article accepted for evaluation. The subject is interesting but perhaps it is more similar to the subjects published in the Machines Journal from MDPI (www.mdpi.com/journal/machines), considering that a planting machine is being designed, properly published, the visibility of the article may be increase.
The article is well documented and covered with bibliographic sources, but you have to check the bibliography again, I did not find article 36 cited in the text.
The introduction is well structured.
In chapter 2 figure 2 a and b, maybe you can manage to group the 2 images on a single line and with the title on the same page (if the quality of the images does not decrease too much). Figure 3 arranged centered with the text.
From subchapter 2.3 the text must be arranged Justify, the titles of subchapters 4.1 and 4.2 written with a capital letter at the beginning of the word.
Otherwise, the article looks good and I positively appreciate the graphic part, which is very suggestive.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
