Effects of Four Base Cutter Blade Designs on Sugarcane Stem Cut Quality

Abstract

Abstract. The cut quality of sugarcane stems during harvesting is of considerable importance, as any damage inflicted on the stems and root systems affects ratooning and reduces yield. In current conventional cutting systems for sugarcane, relatively little attention has been paid to optimizing the cutting dynamics by investigating various blade designs and configurations. One limitation of impact cutting methods is the relatively rapid blunting of the blade edges through wear, leading to stem damage. This study aimed at investigating the effects on sugarcane cut quality of four base cutter blade designs: a conventional straight blade, a 30° angled blade, a serrated blade, and a straight blade with laser cladding on its underside. Blades of each type were installed at a 45° angle on a base cutter fitted to a John Deere 3520 sugarcane harvester. Stem damage, root system damage, and stubble height were considered as cut quality indicators, and blade wear was evaluated as the percentage of metal mass loss after completing each harvesting operation. In this study, the extent of stem and root system damage was classified into nine categories: (1) undamaged stem, not uprooted, (2) undamaged stem, partially uprooted, (3) undamaged stem, uprooted, (4) partially damaged stem, not uprooted, (5) partially damaged stem, partially uprooted, (6) partially damaged stem, uprooted, (7) severely damaged stem, not uprooted, (8) severely damaged stem, partially uprooted, and (9) severely damaged stem, uprooted. The highest percentage of stems damaged during harvesting (approx. 38%) and the highest percentage of root systems damaged (approx. 36%) occurred with the angled blade. The percentages of undamaged stems for the straight, angled, serrated, and laser clad blades were 76.9%, 62.1%, 83.1%, and 72.3%, respectively; partially damaged stems were 11.25%, 21.97%, 11.29%, and 17.73%, respectively; and severely damaged stems were 11.9%, 15.9%, 5.65%, and 9.9%, respectively. Except for the angled blade, all the blades cut almost 80% of stems without affecting the root system, and only 5% of stems were uprooted. Indices for stem damage and uprooting damage were calculated to evaluate the cut quality on a scale from -1.00 (least damage) to +1.00 (greatest damage). For both indices, the serrated blade had values closest to the target value of -1.00, implying the least damage to stems and root systems. Greater stubble heights (110 mm) were observed for the angled blade, with 76% of cut stems above the target 75 mm threshold, which was selected based on the farmer’s suggestion. Comparatively less stubble height was obtained with the serrated and laser clad blades, and roughly 60% of stems were cut in the ideal range (<75 mm). Blade wear percentages per ha of harvested area, based on metal mass loss, were found to be 0.76% for the laser clad blade, 0.83% for the serrated blade, and 0.84% for the straight blade. No mass loss data were collected for the angled blade as it caused such a high level of stem damage that its test was discontinued. The results of this study classified the levels of stem and root system damage occurring in the field during harvesting and their effects on ratooning for four base cutter blade designs. Fundamental guidelines for optimal blade configurations associated with sugarcane harvesting are provided. Keywords: Blade wear, Stem damage, Stubble height, Sugarcane harvester.

Retraction: Cutter design and multi-objective optimization of machine for cable peeling

“…At present, the commonly used cutting the end methods can be classified into four types: chain sawing (Copur, 2010), slashing cutter (Johnson et al,2012), reciprocating (Shen et al, 2017) and circular sawing (Momin et al,2017). Different cutting methods are suitable for different materials, and can achieve different cutting effects.…”

Sugarcane Harvesting Quality by Digital Image Processing

“…Furthermore, the wear of the blades is influenced by several factors such as, geometry, chemical compositions, the hardness of the work organ's material, speed of work, size and nature of soil particles, and system flaws (e.g. mechanical, hydraulic, and electrical systems) that influences the functional behaviour of the base-cutter blades and, consequently increases wear (Mello and Harris 2003;Cassia et al 2014;Momin et al 2017;Pérez-Reyes et al 2018;Ma et al 2014;de Almeida Silva et al 2020).…”

“…Harvesting quality was assessed based on the damage index (Toledo et al 2013;Momin et al 2017;Xie et al 2019). The damage index is represented by a single classification value, which is attributed to the classification of stalks.…”

“…For that reason, several authors have focused on studying the relationship of harvesting quality and basal cutting mechanism's design (Toledo et al 2013;Cassia et al 2014;Ma et al 2014;Momin et al 2017;Voltarelli et al 2017;Alencastre-Miranda et al 2018;Xie et al 2019). Various base-cutter design parameters influence the performance of the cutting mechanism, such as cutting velocity, blade oblique angle, blade bevel angle, cutting disc tilt angle, blade shape, blade thickness, blade coating, overlapping length of upper and lower chopping blades (harvesting choppers), among others (Gupta and Oduori 1992;Mello and Harris 2003;Ma et al 2014).…”

Simulation and Experimental Investigations on the Sugarcane Cutting Mechanism and Effects of Influence Factors on the Cutting Quality of Small Sugarcane Harvesters under Vibration Excitations

“…Moreover, anomputra used the high-pressure water cutting method with abrasive sands added to improve the sugarcane cutting efficiency [12]. Mello [13] and Momin [14] used different blades to carry on experimental research on the sugarcane cutting quality and they found that bendingangle-shape blades with or without saw teeth can improve the sugarcane cutting quality. Ripoli designed a cutter whose cutting depth into soils can be adjusted according to the gradient variation of sugarcane fields [15].…”