Development of Truck-Loading Equipment for Loading Bundle of Sugarcane Stalks

Abstract

The objective of this research is to develop the prototype truck-loading equipment for conveying sugarcane bundles. The main components are the machine frame, conveyor chain, conveyor tray, and a power engine unit. Three levels of chain conveyor speed were tested: 12, 14, and 16 rpm. The test results showed that the speed of the conveyor chain at 14 rpm has the most capacity in actual work because when the speed of the conveyor chain was increased to 16 rpm, the workers who responsible for bundling sugarcane on the truck could not keep up with the conveyor speed. Therefore, the capacity of the conveying system decreases with an average actual working capacity of 5.41 tons/hr. The average field efficiency was 82.00%, and the average fuel consumption was 0.31 L/hr. Compared to the method of loading sugarcane bundles onto trucks according to the method commonly used by farmers, it was found that the average capacity of loading sugarcane bundles onto trucks was 3.10 tons/hr., which is 74.51% less than the system of using human labour together with equipment to load sugarcane bundles onto trucks. The break-even point and payback period are 455.44 tons and 71 working days when using a conveyor chain speed of 14 rpm.