Proper Technical Maintenance of Combine Harvester Rolling Bearings for Smooth and Continuous Performance for Grain Crop Agrotechnical Requirements

Abstract

The threshing mechanism is the main component of the combine harvester on which the grain separation and cleaning qualitative work indicators depend. It is important to ensure that all threshing mechanism components, including the threshing drum bearings and all other bearings of the combine, are working properly and reliably. There are many places in the combine where it is not possible to measure bearing vibrations directly without dismounting them, since there is no suitable spot to mount a sensor. The paper investigates the threshing drum rolling bearing condition of combines, which are difficult to access, by using a vibration diagnostics technique utilizing a newly manufactured steel bracket. The vibration measurements and analysis were conducted by the Adash A4900 Vibrio M analyzer (Adash spol. s.r.o., Ostrava, Czech Republic). The vibration source measurement was based on the fast Fourier transform (FFT) spectrum analysis. Analysis of the experimental results showed that average squared velocity values (in the frequency interval of 10–1000 Hz), together with other measured vibration parameters, can be used for the combine threshing drum‘s bearing condition evaluation.

Keywords

• combine harvester
• threshing drum
• diagnostic
• vibrations
• rolling bearing