Saknarin Deeyotar and Seree Wongpichet

pp. 555 - 562

Abstract

This research aim sat developing harvesting equipment with cylindrical cutter for sweet sorghum harvesting. Vertical
centrifugal blade mechanism is commonly used in forage harvesters. Such a mechanism would chop the plants into small
pieces and transports the mout of the harvesting equipment. However, this research aims to develop such mechanism for
harvesting equipment without the chopping process. The laboratory tests were done under simulation harvesting condition
in the laboratory. An appropriate blade cutting speed was found. The efficiencies of the harvesting equipment with the varied
blade speed and travelling speed were collected. The findings of the study were used to design and construct a harvester
prototype that would harvest one row at a time. The field test was conducted to evaluate the functions of the prototype in
a real field setting. The results showed that an increase of the blade speed between 6.28 and23.35 m/s did not affect the
efficiency of the equipment, nor the cutting loss, but affects the height of the stump, which decreased by 4.82 mm/stump. By
increasing the travelling speed from 2.00 to 3.50 km/hr, the efficiency of the equipment increased by 4.14 %, the cutting loss
decreased by 6.86%, but the loss from the remaining stumps increased by 2.10%. The fuel consumption cost of this prototype
is lower than the cost of the labor wage by 281.60 baht/ha.