Studies on Harvesting Machines (13)

Experimental Analysis for Hand-operated Harvester

Abstract

The power requirements of hand operated harvesters used for harvesting paddy in Japan were calculated. There are three types of harvesters tested out i.e. N-type, B-type, and S-type.
The strain meter and the oscillograph were used to calculate the power requirement (Fig. 1) and the speedmeter to calculate the cutting speed (Fig. 2).
The following deta were collected (table 1. 2. and 3)
The following conclusions have been derived from the study of the three harvesters.
1) Cutting speed varies with the efficiency of the operator, and the optimum speed should be 1-2m/s.
2) The efficiency of cutting varies with the shape of the cutting blade and the type of harvester used.
3) As the friction coefficient of the harvester on soil surface is a large factor, the study of the shape of the shoe is important as that of the shape of the cutting blade.