Effect of Contra-Rotating Basecutter Parameters on Basecutting Losses

Abstract

Basecutter of sugarcane chopper harvester plays an important role in reducing the harvesting losses and the stubble damage rate. Previous studies have shown that the parameters of contra-rotating basecutter could be optimized for better cutting qualities. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the influence of critical parameters, the rotational speed (RS) and tilt angle (TA) of cutting disc, sugarcane stalk feeding rate (FR), and sugarcane stool diameter (SD), on basecutting losses (BL). Four single-factor experiments and a four-factor four-level orthogonal experiment were conducted on the contra-rotating basecutter platform. The results of single-factor experiments indicated that the basecutting losses were positively correlated with RS, TA, and SD but negatively correlated with FR. Analysis of range (ANOR) of orthogonal test showed that the influencing order of four factors was SD > RS > TA > FR (9.81 > 5.31 > 4.87 > 4.76), and the optimal combination was RS2, TA1, SD1, and FR3 (200 rpm of disc rotational speed, 5° of disc tilt angle, 60 mm of cane stool diameter, and 1.0 m/s of feeding rate). The results of ANOVA showed that only SD had a significant effect on BL at the significance level of 0.05, while the other three factors had no significant effect on it. This study could provide references for sugarcane grower to keep the planting density of sugarcane in a reasonable range, which could reduce basecutting losses in sugarcane harvesting.