Journal of Central European Agriculture (Mar 2009)
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIAL CUTTING SYSTEM FOR SWEET SORGHUM HARVESTER
Abstract
Sweet Sorghum is similar to racemose maize with about 3m height and 0.5-3cm thickness of stalk. Sweet Sorghum has sweet flavor stalk, which is used for sugar production. Developed cutting mechanism in this research has a rotary disk with 50 cm diameter and four cutting blades that spin clockwise. The stalks are cut with the impact and inertia forces at the linear velocity of 27 m/s, by cutting blades. This system has a simple bar mechanism guiding the whole-stalk to one side. The cutting quality tests were achieved by two series of blades with 30°and 45° blade angles on the stalk. The results showed that the stalk cutting surface with 30° blade angle was smooth and without fracture on filaments and vasculums, compared to that of 45° blade angle. Blade penetration was accomplished very well with 30° blade angle.