Design and operating characteristics of a push type cutter bar mower

摘要

In the small-scale mountainous enterprises of Turkey, forage harvesting is traditionally done by using scythes or sickles. This method is laborious, ineffective, and requires a long time. The aim of this study was to design, fabricate, and test a pushtype cutter bar mower for use by small-scale enterprises in forage harvesting. Price, land condition, and enterprise size were considered as the main criteria for the design and development process. The cutter bar mower consisted of six main componentsincluding the cutting, transmission, power, handling, frame, and transporting units. A two-cycle engine that produced 1.47 kW at 7000 rpm provided power for the cutting unit. Two skids were attached to the cutter bar unit, one on each side, to control cutting height. The total mass of the mower was 41 kg. Performance tests of the mower resulted in an average 0.11 ha/h effective field capacity, 10.00 L/h fuel consumption, 0.875 field efficiency, 2.24 t/h effective wet grass harvesting capacity, 4.43 L/twet grass specific fuel consumption, and 64 mm cutting height.