Construction of a local machine for chopping residues of banana plants

Abstract EN

The objectives of the present research were to construct and evaluate the performance of a developed machine for chopping residues of banana plants.

Experiments were conducted to study some different operating parameters affecting the performance of chopping stem machine at four different cutting knives speeds of 16.74, 19.88, 23.02 and 26.16 m/sec.

(800, 950, 1100 and 1250 rpm), four different feeding rates of 600, 700, 800 and 900 kg/hr., four different span times after harvesting and two cutting knives edge shape (sharp and serrated edge) taking into consideration calculating machine productivity, chopping efficiency, energy requirements and total costs.

From the obtained results it was concluded that the proper values for banana stem machine productivity was 742 kg/hr., by using cutting knives speed of 26.16 m/sec.

(1250 rpm), serrated knife edge under feeding rate of 800 kg/hr., and 6 days as a span time after harvesting.