Development of Emergency Stop Device for the Hand-Fed Threshing on Head-Feeding Combine (Part 1)

—A Survey into Hand-Fed Threshing and Development of a Prototype Model—

Abstract

We have produced a prototype threshing machine, model No. 1, that is designed to protect farmers from a severe injury sustained if their hand is caught in the threshing unit of a head-feeding combine when hand feeding the machine. This was developed after surveying the requirements of farmers regarding hand feeding the machine and examining the conditions that the prospective machine should accomplish. More than 70 % of the farmers surveyed replied that they had to continue performing hand-fed threshing. We took extra care to slow down the speed of the feed-chain during hand-fed threshing. This was done by either placing a clutch inside the actuator of the feed-chain or actuating the feed-chain by hydraulic static transmission. This enables the feed-chain to be stopped before a hand caught in the machine reaches the threshing unit. We limited the height of the emergency stop switch to a maximum of 1700mm so that female and elderly workers could reach it.