Performance of Crop Dividers with Reference to Harvesting Lodged Sugarcane

摘要

The crop divider is a key component of sugarcane chopper harvester, which has an important effect on the lifting of lodged canes. In this study, it is important to improve the performance of crop dividers, especially when there is severe lodging of the canes. Liugong 4GQ-180 sugarcane chopper harvester was employed to evaluate the lifting performance of crop dividers. Firstly, a large number of canes at different levels of lodging were observed and the lodging angles and side angles were recorded. Further, the single factor test was conducted to investigate the effect of the lodging angles and side angles on the crop divider performance. The results showed that the lifting height is directly proportional to the lodging angle; however, the lifting height of sugarcane increased initially and then decreased with the increasing side angles. The results of two-way ANOVA revealed that the effect of the lodging angle was more significant than the side angle. In addition, the high-speed photography was analyzed to observe the lifting process of lodged canes. However, in other lodging conditions (alpha 75 degrees, or beta 15 degrees, or beta 165 degrees), the lifting effect was still not satisfactory. When cane stalks intertwined seriously, uprooting problems would occur. Therefore, it was necessary to improve the performance of crop dividers in harvesting canes with various levels of lodging.