Development of a compact forage harvester equipped with a stem length orienter and rectangular deflector for small farms

The object of the study is the technological processes of high-quality crushing of stem feeds, due to the oriented feeding of stems into the grinding chamber and transportation of the crushed mass through a rectangular deflector. A review of the literature sources has shown that at present, the design and technological scheme of a small-sized forage harvester has not yet been developed, which in turn ensures high-quality crushing of stem feeds and reduces operating costs in small farms. As a result of theoretical studies, analytical expressions were obtained to determine the mass velocity at the deflector outlet and the range of mass ejection in the horizontal section. The combine productivity when mowing alfalfa was equal to 6.22 t/h, the range of mass ejection in the horizontal direction was within 7.5...8.0 m (theoretical value – 7.8 m), the average size of crushed particles was 32.89 mm (estimated length – 33.5 mm), the difference between theoretical and actual values is 1.5 %. The results of laboratory and field tests showed the efficiency of the forage harvester, the reliability of the analytical expressions obtained and the efficiency of the stem length orienter was determined. A distinctive feature of the research results is that a design and technological scheme of a small-sized forage harvester equipped with an orienter and a theoretical description of the feed transportation process through a rectangular deflector were developed. According to the presented design and technological scheme, the deflector and orienter have a simplified design and good quality of crushing stem feeds. All this proves the practical significance and applicability of the developed forage harvester