PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A LOCAL MACHINE FOR CUTTING AND CHOPPING COTTON STALKS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Agric. Eng. Dept., Fac. Agric., Zagazig Univ., Egypt

Abstract

The aim of this study was to design, manufacture and evaluate the performance of a local machine for cutting and chopping cotton stalks. It consists of main frame, cutting and feeding unit, chopping unit and transmission system to transmit the rotating motion from power take off (pto) of tractor to the movable machine components. Field experiments were carried out under four different stalks moisture contents wet base (w.b.) of about 37.83, 33.54, 28.87 and 20.17%; four different clearances between cutting drums of 1, 2, 3 and 4 cm; four different peripheral shredder speeds of about 47.1, 54.95, 62.8 and 70.65 m/sec., and different numbers of plan blades on shredder of 2, 4, 6 and 8 blades. All experiments were carried out at four different kinematic parameters of about 7.83, 10.46, 13.48 and 17.21 between cutting rotating speed of 1000 rpm and different forward speeds. Machine performance was evaluated in terms of field capacity, cutting and shredding efficiency, energy requirements and cost. The experimental results revealed that 28.87%, 2 cm, 62.8 m/sec., 6 blades and 10.46 of stalks moisture content, cutting drums clearance, chopper peripheral speed, number of plan blades on shredder and kinematic parameter, respectively recorded minimum criterion cost of 135.35 LE.

Keywords

Zagazig Journal of Agricultural Research
Volume 43, Issue 5
September 2016
Pages 1735-1750

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