The adoption of grafting machines has become an essential trend in the advancement of the vegetable nursery industry, driven by the aging population and the rapid growth of the vegetable sector. Domestic and foreign research organizations have designed various types of vegetable grafting devices for the huge nursery market. However, most of the machines developed and designed at home and abroad are now semi-automated and are thus highly susceptible to damaging the stems of the seedlings during operation. Therefore, in order to realize the complete automation of the grafting operation and improve the grafting survival rate and quality, in this paper, eggplant hole tray seedlings were grafted as the object, and the cutting mechanism, the integrated mechanism of clamping and fitting, and the wrapping mechanism were structured on the basis of the affixing method. The transition conversion from semi-automatic to fully automatic was realized. And the rationality of the design was verified via the cutting test and the clamping characteristic test, which maximized the fit rate between the cutting surface of the rootstock and the scion seedling and maximized the protection of the grafted seedling from damage in the clamping process. Finally, the device was tested using Torubam rootstock and a Nova 101 tomato scion. The results showed that the optimal cutting angles were 35° and 30° for rootstock and scion, respectively, and that the lengths of the cutting surfaces were 11.28 ± 0.18 mm and 11.43 ± 0.14 mm. The grafting efficiency of the machine was up to 700 grafts per hour, with an average grafting success rate of up to 95% and zero stem damage to the seedlings. The experiments proved that the structure design of the machine is reasonable, and it can fully improve the grafting efficiency and quality. Meanwhile, the research findings can provide a theoretical basis for the application of the latter in the field of plant grafting. The research results can effectively alleviate the dependence on manual labor in the nursery industry and further liberate the labor force.

With the rapid development of the vegetable industry and the accelerating pace of population aging, mechanization in the core production process of vegetable seedling grafting has become an inevitable trend. To address this, various vegetable grafting devices have been developed globally. However, most existing equipment exhibits limited automation and is prone to damaging young plant stems during operation. To effectively reduce seedling injury, improve grafting quality, and increase success rates, this study focused on tray seedlings of cucurbitaceous vegetables as grafting subjects. Based on the bud grafting method, we conducted mechanistic analysis and structural design for the cutting module, the integrated clamping and grafting mechanism, and the clip supply and binding system. Experiments were carried out at the Protected Agriculture Demonstration Base in Ke Township, Yecheng County, Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang. The study adopted the multiple-group repeated experiment verification method, and completed verification through cutting tests and grafting efficiency tests. Specifically, 250 rootstocks and 250 scions were selected for the cutting tests, while 500 rootstocks and 500 scions were selected for the grafting efficiency tests; both tests were divided into 5 groups, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis. Cutting trials and clamping performance tests demonstrated that the designed mechanism improves the precision of alignment between rootstock and scion cuts while minimizing potential damage during clamping, confirming the rationality of the design. The overall performance was further validated in grafting trials using Qingyan rootstock No. 1 pumpkin and Yongtian No. 5 melon as scions. Results showed that with rootstock and scion cutting angles set at 30° and 25°, respectively, and corresponding cut surface lengths of 6.34 ± 0.18 mm and 6.29 ± 0.14 mm, the device achieved a grafting efficiency of 1400 plants per hour with an average success rate of 90%, and no obvious stem damage was observed during the clamping process. These results demonstrate that the proposed grafting machine design is effective in enhancing both grafting efficiency and quality.