The experimental research of combine harvesters

Abstract

AbstractŠpokas L., Adamčuk V., Bulgakov V., Nozdrovický L. (2016): The experimental research of combine harvesters. Res. Agr. Eng., 62: 106-112.The paper presents results of the experimental research of a middle-size combine harvester when used for harvest of winter wheat and spring barley in heavy harvest conditions. Based on the results obtained, it was possible to determine the effect of field conditions on the crop mass flow in combine harvester, grain losses, fuel consumption, and combine harvester field performance. It was found that grain moisture content and conditions of the crop stand have a significant effect on the work indicators of the combine harvester when compared with its technological parameters and crop mass flow.Кeywords: grain losses; fuel consumption; combine harvester field performance As stated by Kutzbach and Quick (1999) the main processes in a modern harvester are gathering and cutting, threshing, separating, cleaning, and material handling. Currently, designers of the combine harvesters pay more attention to the improvement of the quality of control process, its automatic control, improve the trafficability of the chassis and the environment protection. They argue that an increase in engine power increases the throughput of the combine harvester. Engine power of the combine harvesters equipped with the classic straw walkers already exceeded 295k W/400 HP, and hybrid and axial -closer to 440 kW/600 HP (Srivastava et al. 2006). But the throughput of the combine harvester is associated not only with the power of the engine, and it is more closely connected with the separation deck area, straw walker and cleaning mechanism capacity.According to the FAO Report (FAO 2014) in Ukraine, the 2014 aggregate cereal production is estimated at about 61.9 million tonnes marginally below 2013 year's record level and around 25% above the five-year average. This output reflects near-record yields, following favourable weather conditions during the cropping season, which more than offset a slight contraction in the planted area compared to 106

Study of the process of grain pre-threshing by working bodies of a combine harvester header

“…The total quantity of GSM coincides with the mass arriving to the threshing machine. According to [1][2][3][4][5][6], we determined the amount of the mass (bandwidth, q, kg/s) by dependence:…”

“…Therefore, we obtain discrepancy with basic indicators that are applied to seed material. Agrarians increase a rate of sowing by 20-25 % compared to sowing of conditioned seeds in response to such circumstances [3,4]. Research was conducted that established the possibility of separation of up to 35 % of grain by operative parts of a header [5,6].…”

Corn Ear Threshing Performance of Filler-Plate-Covered Threshing Cylinders

“…Grain damage depends upon the moisture content of the threshed crop mass, upon the technological parameters of the threshing mechanism and also upon the crop mass flow [4]. The most threshing research has shown that high cylinder speed is the main factor causing corn grain damage [3,15,16].…”

“…15), trends in grain damage remained very similar to those at the 6 kg s −1 feed rate; no significant differences in grain damage were observed between feed rates of 6 kg s −1 and 12 kg s −1 . Meanwhile, in winter wheat harvesting increase of the combine harvester feed rate caused the decrease of the grain damage [4], because thicker straw layer more absorbed rasp bar strokes.…”

“…Setting wellbalanced technological parameters for adjustment of the threshing apparatus not only increases throughput of the combine harvester but also improves the quality indicators of the threshing process. This leads to reduced grain loss, reduced grain damage as well as improved grain separation through the concave [4].…”