(Autonomous) DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ENGINEERING Eighth Semester AI 8020- Special Farm Equipment Regulations 2017 Question Bank UNIT – III (THRESHERS AND HARVESTERS) PART- A Q.No Questions Marks CO BL 1 Recall about self-propelled windrower. 2 CO3 R Self-propelled windrowers consist of two types of headers. The augur cross feed is the most common type on hay machines but is too aggressive for grain. The draper type is employed on windrowers intended for both grain and hay. 2 What is reaper binder used for? 2 CO3 R Reaper binder machine is mainly used to harvest & bind low stem crops like wheat, rice, oats, barley, and straw, etc. The machine has different structure & working rows to meet different needs of farmer. 3 Classify root harvesting equipment. 2 CO3 R According to the source of power Manual operated Animal-drawn equipment Tractor operated equipment According to the mode of hitching Trailed type Mounted type Semi-mounted type Self-propelled type According to the unit operations performed Simple digger Digger-shaker Digger-elevator-windrower 4 Write the general considerations for efficient utilization of the root 2 CO3 R harvesting equipment. Proper field layout Proper planting method Proper moisture content at the harvest time Pre-harvest treatment such as haulm-cutting, vine-killing etc. Proper adjustment of the depth of the digging 5 List the basic components of sugarcane combine harvest system. 2 CO3 R Gathering mechanism Topping mechanism Base cuter Feed conveyor Chopper Elevator Cleaning by air blast 6 Write the design criteria for selecting a sugarcane harvester. 2 CO3 R The sugarcane harvester to be developed should preferably be operated by 70 to 80 hp tractor. The capacity of machine should be 1.5 to 2.0 ha/day or even more. The cost of the machine should be within Rs. 25-30 lakhs. The machine should be light in weight with low turning radius. Trash content should not be more than 5%. 7 List the basic components of mechanical cotton picker. 2 CO3 R An arrangement for guiding the plants into the picking zone and providing necessary support while the seed cotton is being removed. Devices to remove the cotton from open bolls. A conveying system for picked cotton A storage basket or a container in which picked when is stored temporarily. 8 Furnish the classification of corn harvesters. 2 CO3 R Snappers Picker-huskers Picker-shellers Grain combines equipped with corn heads 9 Illustrate the different units of maize harvesters. 2 CO3 U Gathering units Snapping units Trash removal Husking units 10 Write a short note on grape harvesting. 2 CO3 R Attempts have been made to harvest grapes with vertical stroke harvesters, which have one impacter per row. This is a selfpropelled machine, which may have a stroke of 12 cm or more, with frequency of 250 to 500 rpm. In this machine, shaking is carried out by slopping the vines from the sides.
PART- B
Q.No Questions Marks CO BL
1 Briefly discuss about construction, adjustment and alignment of reaper 16 CO3 U with neat sketch.
Harvesting of cereal crops especially wheat and rice is a serious
problem. There is a tremendous crop loss when untimely rain is experienced. Delayed harvesting causes grain shattering due to over maturity. The standing crop in the field can be harvested with the use of reapers. A reaper may be classified as animal-drawn reaper, animal-drawn engine operated reaper, tractor rear mounted PTO operated reaper, power tiller operated or tractor front mounted vertical conveyer type reapers and tractor mounted reaper binder. Animal-drawn reaper: It consists of a cutter bar of 1.05 m length (Fig. 2). The power to drive the knife bar is given from the ground wheel by means of gear box, crank and connecting rod mechanism. As the machine is pull forward by a pair of bullocks, a reciprocating motion is imparted to the knife bar with a peak cutting velocity of about 100 m/min. The crop is cut due to shearing action. The effective field capacity of machine varies between 0.2-0.3 ha/h.
Animal-drawn engine operated reaper: It has a cutter bar of 1.35 m
length. A 2 hp 4-stroke petrol engine operates the cutter bar. The drive to the cutter bar from engine is given through V belt and gearbox. It can cover 0.2-0.4 ha/h with field efficiency of about 80%. Power tiller/Tractor front mounted vertical conveyer reaper windrower: A machine called vertical conveyor reaper–cum-windrower can cut the crop and lay it in the form of windrow for easy picking. It consists of a conventional cutter bar assembly, crop row dividers with star wheels, covers, pressure springs and vertical conveyor belts Cutter bar is given reciprocating motion by crank wheel. Crop row dividers with star wheels enter the standing crop, help in lifting, gathering and guiding the crop towards the cutter bar. After the crop is cut, held in a vertical position during its passage by means of pressure springs and star wheels. Vertically held crop is then delivered towards right side of the machine in a windrow perpendicular to the direction of movement of machine with the help of lugged conveyor belt. The gearbox and windrower is coupled to the drive shaft of the prime mower. Pressure springs are fitted below the star wheels between the conveying platforms to keep the cut crop in upright position while it is being conveyed out of the machine. The power in case of power tiller units is transmitted through an intermediate shaft to the gearbox on windrower either by belt or by shaft drive. In tractor mounted models, the power to the gearbox is transmitted from PTO shaft through gearbox by a long shaft running beneath the tractor body to the front and with the help of universal joint and telescopic shaft which is connected to the gearbox. Lowering and raising of reaper is carried out with the help of hydraulic system of a tractor. In case of power tiller the machine pivots on the power tiller wheels. By pushing the handle, the cutter bar can be raised. A front mounted vertical conveyor reaper is the most common reaper, to harvest wheat and paddy crops. It can also be used for harvesting of soybean and other similar crops. Engine operated reaper can be operated with a 5-6 hp engine; whereas, tractor operated reapers can be operated with 25-35 hp tractor. Width of cut is about 1.6 m in power tiller reaper, and about 2.05 m in tractor operated reapers. Stroke per min of cutter bar is 1225 and 1550 in case of power tiller and tractor operated reapers, respectively. Power tiller and tractor-front mounted vertical conveyer reaper windrower can cover about 0.2 ha/h and 0.4 ha/h, respectively.
2 (i) Explain the design consideration, adjustment and working of potato 8 CO3 U diggers with neat sketch.
Potato cultivation, especially on large size farms, has got
mechanized because; it was not possible to handle the labour intensive operations like sowing and harvesting. Manually harvesting of potatoes requires about 800 man-h/ha, which is quite a labour intensive job. However, potato-digging operation has been mechanized with the introduction of potato diggers. The machine may be manually operated or power operated such as animal-drawn potato digger (Fig. 1), tractor-drawn potato digger (Fig. 2), potato digger shaker and potato digger elevator (Fig. 3). The potato digger elevator consists of a shovel, rod chain conveyor, gearbox and two gauge wheels. The machine digs one or two ridges of potatoes at a time and picks up the soil-potato mass over the rod chain conveyor. Agitating sprocket, of this conveyor oscillates the rod chain and separates the soil. The tubers with no or very little soil drop out on the ground in a row behind the machine, which are later collected manually. These machines are commercially available and are used widely in the northern states of India. Most of these machines are 2 row machines, but 1-row and 2-row both types of diggers are also available. The machine can cover 1.5-3.0 ha/day at forward speed of 2.0-3.0 km/h. Potatoes are easily bruised or skinned but are less susceptible when fully mature than when immature. 2 (ii) Write the design consideration, adjustment and working of groundnut 8 CO3 R diggers with neat sketch.
The combination digger shaker comprises of single piece curved blade with extension rods welded at the rear, two disc coulters and an endless chain type pick-up elevator-cum-shaker conveyor (rattler) having spiked rakes bolted to the chains. Power transmission of the digger consists of a gear box, a cross drive shaft, V-belt & pulleys and driving sprockets mounted on a shaft supported over members of the frame. Front portion of the shaker conveyor can be adjusted up or down with the help of a hand lower chain. The width of cut is 1.22 m.
Principle of operation: The blade digs the crop from a 1.2 meter wide strip. The vines are picked up and lifted by the shaker conveyor that follows blade. The soil adhering to the roots and pods is shaken off at the conveyor and the vines are dropped at the back in the form of a fluffy windrow. Tractor PTO operated groundnut digger shaker is quite popular in northern India far harvesting groundnut. The machine consists of a blade, elevator-cum-pick up reel, power transmission system, windrower attachment and fenders, gauge wheels and coulters
The front end of pick up-cum-elevator reel is adjustable in
accordance with depth of working of blade. It digs out the plant along with groundnut. The material is moved over the conveyor; the soil is loosened and removed. It has been designed to suit a tractor of 30 hp or more and is being operated by PTO shaft of the tractor. The digging shovel may be either of pointed type or conveying cutting edge type. The width of digging shovel ranges from 50-60 cm. This machine has an average output of 0.27 ha/h. The forward speed of digger is kept between 2.4-3.0 km/h. In order to pick and gather the tubers dropped in a windrow behind the digger, nearly 10-12 workers are required for continuous working of the digger. Groundnut digger blades with corrugated roller at rear (Fig. 5) are also used in medium and heavy soils where the corrugated roller helps in crushing the clods. This helps in easy picking of groundnut tubers. Another simple groundnut digger blade (Fig. 6) is also used in light soil where clod formation is not much. Loose soil falls through the extension rods behind the blade and groundnut tubers are left over the soil for easy picking and gathering. 3 Briefly explain the design consideration, adjustment and working of 16 CO3 U sugarcane harvester with neat sketch.
Sugarcane harvesting involves base cutting of the crop, detopping,
detrashing, bundling, loading and transportation. Detopping and detrashing of crop itself takes about two-third of manpower required for harvesting.
The basic components of a sugarcane combine are:
(i) Gathering mechanism (ii) Topping mechanism (iii) Base cuter (iv) Feed conveyor (v) Chopper (vi) Elevator (vii) Cleaning by air blast Gathering mechanism: Its function is to separate sprawled cane and align the row to be harvested. They are made of revolving scrolls fitted on gathering walls. It consists of two triangular walls, approximately 140 cm apart at the tips and converging to the throat width of the machine just forward of the base cutters. The tips of each wall are fitted with ground engaging points to get under and lift stalks that are lying on the ground. Topping mechanism: Its job is to gather, cut and discard nonproductive tops. The gathering operation is performed by gathering chains while cutting is done by a horizontally rotating disc fitted with mower blades which cut against a fixed anvil. Base cutter: Its function is to cut the stalk at or just below ground level. At least one manufacture uses twin contra-rotating discs fitted with a number of replaceable knife blades. Some use single diameter blades for base cutting the cane.. Feed conveyor: Its function is to convey the whole stalks of cane from the bass cutter to the choppers. In some machines it is made of endless chain slat conveyor. In others a series of rollers are used. In some machines augers are used for feeding cane to the chopper. Choppers: Their function is to receive the whole stalks from the feed conveyor and chop them into short uniform billets. The design used by Massey Ferguson is a pair of parallel shafts each with paddle shaped blades, which as they rotated came together in the plane containing the shafts, and so gave a flying or travelling cut. Elevator: Its function is to receive the billets from the choppers and convey them into a receptacle for transporting to the mill. An inclined chain and slat conveyor is used. The elevator can be rotated 180 degrees in most machines. This facilitates in opening of the field and harvesting in either direction. Air-blast cleaning: One of the biggest problems with mechanically harvested cane is the foreign matter in cane delivered to the mill. Foreign matter consists of leaves, tops, dirt, stones and many other materials picked from the field. In some machines one while in others two fans are being used for extracting leaves and dirt from the cane. M.F. 205 has two extractors one at each end of the Elevator.
The basic components combined in a frame and provided with a power unit and vehicle, constitute a cane combine (Fig. 3). It is generally powered with an engine of about 150 hp. Design criteria Following points cover the expectations of the farmers/users; Sugarcane harvester should be able to cut the whole cane from base, detrash it, detop it and may put the cut cane in the container attached behind or may windrow the cut crop. Row to row spacing is adjustable to cut cane grown at a spacing of 60 to 150 cm. The sugarcane harvester to be developed should preferably be operated by 70 to 80 hp tractor. The capacity of machine should be 1.5 to 2.0 ha/day or even more. The cost of the machine should be within Rs. 25-30 lakhs with total cost The machine should be light in weight with low turning radius. Trash content should not be more than 5%.
Sugarcane combine harvester: In this system, sugarcane is cut first from
the top and then from the base and it is cut into billets and is loaded in transport cart. It does not required separate loader for loading purpose. The machine consists of gathering mechanism, detopping mechanism, base cutter, feed conveyor, chopper, and elevator and cleaning unit. The machine is generally powered by the engine of 150 hp. Pre-harvest burning is being practiced where harvester is to be used. Mostly it can harvest cane grown at a row-to-row distance of 90 cm. The average capacity of the machine is about 0.4 ha/h. It is most sophisticated machine among all types of sugarcane harvesters. Engine operated sugarcane leaf stripper: This is a portable engine operated machine used for the detrashing and leaf stripping from whole cane. The sugarcane without leaf require less space for storage as well as transportation.
Whole stalk sugarcane harvesters: These harvesters are quite suitable for those areas where sugarcane crushing is not possible within short period of harvesting. Delay during transport, loading, unloading, waiting at one or the other stage is unavoidable.
