Abstract: Aiming at the problems of discontinuous processes, low automation, and lack of an automatic pressure system in the existing tea straightening and flattening machine, an automatic flat tea straightening and flattening machine was successfully developed with a PLC as the core controller, based on the process parameters requirements for flat tea. This machine integrated control modules for transmission, feeding, straightening, and flattening, achieving closed-loop control of mass, temperature, time, and the coordinated operation of the entire machine. Using green tea as the test material and the straight strip rate and integrity as evaluation indices, a single-factor experiment was conducted. The results showed that the optimal process parameters for this machine were a feeding quantity of 400 g, a straightening and flattening temperature of 200 ℃, a straightening and flattening time of 570 s, and a vibration frequency of 45 Hz. The equipment effectively reduced labor intensity and significantly improved production efficiency and tea quality.

Key words: flat tea, automatic straightening and flattening machine, design, process optimization, green tea