DEVELOPMENT AND DETERMINATION OF THE FIELD PERFORMANCE OF STALK CHOPPERS EQUIPPED WITH DIFFERENT BLADE CONFIGURATIONS

E. Cakir, I. Aygun

Abstract: The objective of this study was to determine the cutting performance of different design of stalk choppers as they are equipped with different blades and run at different rotational speeds in vineyard for chopping stalks after pruning. In order to meet this objective, cutting performance, power requirements, and fuel consumptions of stalk choppers having different number of blades, blade design, and rotational speed were determined at different forward speeds in vineyard. According to the results, machine type and forward speeds were found statistically significant once choppers were compared in terms of
power requirements, fuel consumptions and chopping effectiveness. Prototype chopper 1 provided the best chopping performance with 62.92 % in the range of 0-10 cm chopped stalk length with lowest power requirement of 4.06 hp m-1 and the second best fuel consumption of 4.11 L h-1 m-1 comparing to other two stalk choppers. Generally, conventional stalk chopper had the worst chopping effectiveness with highest power requirement and fuel consumption as 37 %, 6.03 hp m-1, and 4.13 L h-1 m1, respectively.

Keywords: pruned vineyard stalks; stalk choppers; stalk chopping; unite fuel consumption; unite power requirement

Date published: 2017-10-12