The Optimum Speed Investigation of the CASE Harvester Cleaning Fan for KK3 Sugarcane

Abstract

During sugarcane harvesting process on fields, there were sugarcane losses occurred in the process such as blown-out loss from a primary extractor fan used to clean leaves out of the sugarcane, loss from conveyers and from high cutting by a base cutter. Different species of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) contained different trunk and leaf sizes, different cleaning fan speeds should be considered. If the losses are reduced, the better process can be obtained, and farmers get more income from more products and less loss. This work focused on finding the proper operating speeds of the primary extractor fan equipped in the sugarcane harvester; A8000/8800 model CASE IH trademark, to harvest the Khon Kaen 3 (KK 3) sugarcane (S. officinarum L.) in the minimum contamination and by the maximum flawed sugarcane sticks less than 2%. The harvester manufacturer has recommended the fan speed at 800 rpm as the suggested speed. The experimental investigations in five different operating speeds; 700, 800, 900, 1000 and 1100 rpm, of the fan were performed at the sugarcane field in Saybouly District, Kenghat Village, Lao PDR. Ten different sampling points were specified to check contamination; sand, leaves and flawed sugarcane sticks, along 400-meter-long plots with 1.65-meter plot offset. Each sampling point was in a 10-meter-square area. The reported values were average values obtained from all points in three repeating examinations. We found that the minimum contamination was 7.26% and the flawed sugarcane was 1.95% when the fan speed at 700 rpm. The maximum contamination was at the highest speed. Therefore, the fan speed at 700 rpm was used as the new operating speed for the harvester in the KK 3 sugarcane harvesting process to reduce the losses.