Design, Development and Evaluation of Whole Cane Combine Harvester

作者：Bastian Joby^*; Sureshkumar P K; Shridar B; Yesudas D Manohar

来源：AMA-Agricultural Mechanization in Asia Africa and Latin America, 2017, 48(3): 7-13.

This study was undertaken to design, develop and evaluate a tractor operated whole cane combine harvester. The developed unit consists of different sub-systems such as de topper, crop dividers, knock-down roller, base cutter and de-trasher cum conveyer. The prototype was mounted to a 75 hp four wheel drive tractor and evaluated in field. The required minimum rotary speed of the tractor engine at which all the flow requirement were satisfied and the best combinations of the pumps and motors were finalized by optimization using LINGO software. Field capacity of the developed machine was 0.09 ha h(-1) with a field efficiency of 75%. Considering the sugarcane average productivity of 50 t ha(-1), the cost of harvesting per tonne is Rs. 212 for the developed tractor operated whole cane combine harvester. The tractor operated whole cane combine harvester results in an average savings of 62 and 42% against manual harvesting and self-propelled combine harvesting, respectively. The breakeven point of the developed tractor operated whole cane combine harvester was 694 hours or 63 ha in a year.

• 出版日期2017