OPTIMISING MACHINE COMPONENT LAYOUT FOR ENHANCED HARVESTER FEEDING PERFORMANCE IN LODGED CROPS

摘要

The move towards green-cane harvesting and the focus of manufacturers and machine operators on effective feeding of cane into the machine and high machine output have resulted in trends of increasing power and more aggressive knockdown. This focus onoperational reliability has generally been the cause of damage to both the cane stalk (resulting in direct losses) and the stool (resulting in indirect losses). The compromise in machine configuration between reliable feed in recumbent crops and acceptable damage in upright crops has also been difficult. The forward-feeding layout and basecutter configuration are paramount to the feeding ability of current model machines during harvesting of heavy, lodged green cane. To minimise choking or glut/starve feeding, increased feed efficiency is a fundamental criterion in the forward-feeding geometry. An enhanced forward-feeding geometry module based on an underslung basecutter arrangement was designed and developed. The performance of the enhanced underslungmodule was evaluated and compared with the standard feeding configuration in heavily lodged, sprawled and tangled crops in northern New South Wales. The field performance clearly demonstrated a significant improvement in machine performance over the standard forward-feeding module in gathering and feeding ability in lodged, sprawled and tangled crop conditions. Under the same conditions, the harvester fitted with the enhanced forward-feeding module could achieve a pour rate in the order of 40 t/h higher than the standard module. At identical pour rates, there was a significant one percent reduction in roots and dirt entering the cane supply when harvesting with the enhanced forward-feeding module than when harvesting with the standard module.