Development of Low Cost Sugarcane Harvester for Maharashtra Region: A Review

With this Sugarcane Harvester mechanization attached to tractor Sugarcane industry will have their harvesting costs reduced. Labour associated with harvesting will be reduced without reducing employment. Sugarcane harvesting could also be side business to farmers. Sugarcane Industries no more have to worry about investments associated with harvesting. It will be developed in such a way that it can be attached to any tractor available with farmers. The harvested sugarcane will be dumped in the trailing trolley associated with the tractor. There is also a possibility of using an extra engine apart from that of tractor engine. Harvesting of sugarcane at a proper time i.e., peak maturity, by adopting right technique is necessary to realize maximum weight of the millable canes (thus sugar) produced with least possible field losses under the given growing environment. On the other hand harvesting either under-aged or over-aged cane with improper method of harvesting leads to loss in cane yield, sugar recovery, poor juice quality and problems in milling due to extraneous matter. Therefore, proper harvesting should ensure: ● To harvest the cane at peak maturity (i.e., avoiding cutting of either over-matured or under-matured cane) ● Cutting cane to ground level so that the bottom sugar rich internodes are harvested which add to yield and sugar ● De-topping at appropriate height so that the top immature internodes are eliminated ● Proper cleaning of the cane i.e., removing the extraneous matter such as leaves, trash, roots etc. ● Quick disposal of the harvested cane to factory Several standard analytical methods are available to determine the peak maturity or quality so that the cane is harvested at right time. Without such analysis also several farmers take-up cane harvesting based on crop age and appearance. Sometimes farmers

After consultation with number of sugarcane factories in Maharashtra state of India following facts are found: 1. Only 30% of total sugarcane is harvested using sugarcane harvester. Major reason is high initial cost. Other reason includes maintenance and skilled operators. As sugarcane harvesters are functional only for 6 months a year, they remain idle for next 6 months. Because of this idle period these are prone to heavy to moderate maintenance. 2. Manual harvesting has lot of problems. Manpower management is difficult. Fatigue in harvesting workers limit the manual harvesting rate. Operating costs associated with manual sugarcane harvesting are high. 3. Sugarcane harvested from harvesters is to be crushed in limited time. It is because of the fact that sugarcane is cut into number of small pieces using harvesters.

In manufacturing and assembling of different parts of the machine. The machine parts are fabricated after determining the dimensions of the machine parts. The designing job is more like a logical and referred as a highly technical work which involves selection of material properties ascertaining, sizes and dimensions of machine components. But when converts the design into real parts it seems to be very tedious. So manufacturing is considered as a very prominent as well as crucial process which should be carried in a systematic manner and it should be carried out with specified standard. Otherwise machine could fail. Sugarcane industry will have their harvesting costs reduced. Labour associated with harvesting will be reduced without reducing employment. Sugarcane harvesting could also be side business to farmers. Sugarcane Industries no more have to worry about investments associated with harvesting.

Cutting Force required to cut a sugarcane: 150N (This value is found with experiments. Most of the sugarcane harvester literature assume the same value) If diameter of cutter is 300mm. then, Cutting torque = F*D/2 =22.5Nm Now,

P=2*3.14*N*T/60 N=P*60/(2*3.14*22.5) N=0.42*P

When P is in hp, N=0.42*746*P (P is in hp) Tractor has power take off (PTO). PTO delivers rated power at rated rpm. Using this power as I/P sugarcane harvester is actuated. Cutting as well as dumping mechanism is actuated by coupling them with the PTO. This Mechanization can be attached to tractors of power output in the range of 5hp to 25hp. We have tractors available in the market from companies such as: 1. Mahindra 2. Cubota 3. Sonalika 4. John Deers They have variety of tractors depending upon the purpose of their use. Most of the tractors having PTO shaft delivering power in the range of 5hp to 25hp. Some of the models are also capable of delivering power up to 35hp. This mechanization can be fitted on to any of the tractors. Only following things will change. 1. Selection of tractor specific PTO shaft attachment. 2. Selection of driving and driven pulley in case rated power rpm is different.

● Existing machines are complex technologies involving huge costs. Ours is a simple one that can be attached to tractor. ● Operational cost using our machine will be much lower.

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A sugarcane mechanical gathering system is also manual and Machine gathering systems. Within the Manual gathering systems, the mechanisms of the sugarcane harvester perform a collection of functions in sequence to finish gathering operation. Full mechanization systems of sugarcane gathering might either be self-propelled whole-stalk harvesters or the chopper harvesters. Machine gathering technology diagrammatical within the tractor mounted and tiny cane harvesters perform one or a lot of the functions done by the total mechanization harvester. Variable styles of tractor mounted further as little sugarcane cutters are developed for the conditions of developing countries. Several styles of sugarcane mechanical harvesters are regionally incontestable for farmers’ acceptance. Most of the incontestable harvesters cut the bases of cane stalks and leave them lying on the bottom. The farmer should decide the cane stalks, top it, clean dry leaves and prepare it during a pile appropriate for loading. Therefore, the farmers verify that the employment of cane cutters don't save price or effort. The makes an attempt of developing a neighborhood cane harvester restricted to graduate students analysis with no probability for field demonstration. It looks like all the countries manufacturing sugarcane have developed undefeated cane harvester for his or her native conditions.

Mr. Rohit Masute (2015). “Design and Fabrication of Small Sugarcane Harvester” IJRDO Journal of Mechanical And Civil Engineering: ISSN: 2456-1479 Volume-1, Issue-3, March, 2015 Adarsh J. Jain, Shashank Karne, Srinivas Ratod, Vinay N. Thotadand Kiran P. (2013). “Design And Fabrication of Small Scale Sugarcane Harvesting Machine”, IJMERR ISSN-2278-0149,Vol-2,No-3 July2013 T. Moontree, S. Rittidech and B. Bubphachot (2012). “Development of Sugarcane Harvester Using Small Engine In Northeast Thailand”, International Journal Of Physical Sciences Vol-7(44), pp. 5510-5917, November2012 Yuichi Kobayashi, Kanji Otsuka, Ken Tariwaki, Mitsuho Sugimoto and Kyo Kobayashi (2003). “Development of Kenaf Harvesting Technology Using A Modified Sugarcane Harvester”, JARQ 37(1), pp. 65-69. Yanmei Meng, Yuanling Chen, Shanping Li, Chaolin Chen, Kai Xu, Fanglan Ma, Xiaobio Dai

of Numeric Simulation of Macromolecule Cleaning Element for Sugarcane Harvester”, August 2008 E. S. Bosoi, O. V. Verniaev, T. I. Smimov, E. G. Sultan-Shakh (1987). Theory, Construction And Calculations Of Agricultural Machines, pp. 175-191.

M. Tech Student, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, PCOE, Nagpur