Comparative performance of different types of choppers for managing rice straw Singh Manpreet*, Goyal Rajesh, Verma Aseem, Singh Rajinder, Singh Manjeet Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, Punjab *Corresponding author: msbham@pau.edu
Online published on 16 September, 2020. Abstract A study was conducted to measure the effect of different rice straw load conditions on the operational and performance characteristics of three different straw chopping machines available in the region. The field capacity of reel type straw chopper was higher (0.39 ha/h) compared with mulcher (0.31 ha/h) and stud type chopper (0.31 ha/h) under low straw load conditions. However, when operating in high rice straw load condition (9.5 t/ha), field capacity of reel type chopper (0.2 ha/h) was significantly lesser than mulcher (0.28 ha/h) and stud type chopper (0.26 ha/h). The fuel consumption of mulcher was lower by 28.8 and 30.9% over reel and stud type choppers and was independent of straw load conditions. On the other hand, field capacity and fuel consumption of reel and stud type chopper were significantly affected by straw load condition. Also, while choking of bruising system of reel type choppers was recorded when operating in high straw load condition, the operation of the mulcher remained unaffected. However, material handling capacity was better for stud type chopper (91.7 to 96.1%) compared with reel type chopper (66.9 to 88.3%) and mulcher (76.2 to 87.9%). Under low straw load condition, weighted mean size (WMS) of straw was similar for mulcher, reel and stud type chopper. However, under high rice straw load condition, WMS of straw for reel and stud type chopper was smaller compared with mulcher. For achieving better size reduction of rice residue, one could prefer stud type chopper over mulcher and reel type chopper. However, to achieve high field capacity, fuel efficiency, maneuverability, economics and lesser choking; mulcher was preferable over stud and reel type chopper. The repair and maintenance cost of reel and stud type chopper was more compared with mulcher due to a greater number of moving parts/components. In conclusion, mulcher was found to be a robust machine, which is capable of performing well in varied straw load conditions. Top Keywords Chopper, Mulching, Rice residue, Straw management. Top |