Abstract:Yellowing is a distinctive process in yellow tea production. Currently, there is a lack of special continuous and automatic equipment for yellowing in the yellow tea processing industry. To address these issues, a dedicated equipment designed specifically for the yellowing process of yellow tea was presented. Considering the requirements for continuous processing, the mechanical structure of the equipment for yellowing was meticulously designed. Furthermore, the required heating power and steam flow rate of the equipment were calculated, and the relevant components were carefully selected and integrated into the construction of a functional prototype. An innovative temperature and humidity control method based on interval type-2 fuzzy theory was proposed to overcome the challenges in temperature and humidity control. The test results of the temperature and humidity control system showed that the interval type-2 fuzzy control algorithm accurately controlled temperature and humidity parameters, with stronger disturbance suppression capability and smaller control error compared with the type-1 fuzzy control algorithm. Production test results demonstrated that the equipment achieved maximum root mean square error of 0.4391℃ for temperature and 1.2262% for humidity. Sensory evaluation confirmed that the products processed by this equipment met the quality requirements of western Anhui yellow tea.