MISR JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING ISSN-Print: 1687-384X
https://mjae.journals.ekb.eg/ ISSN-Online: 2636-3062
Misr J. Ag. Eng., 37 (4): 325 - 330 DOI: 10.21608/mjae.2020.47247.1012
MJAE, October 2020 325
REVIEW OF SOME PARAMETERS RELATED
TO THE BASE-CUTTER OF SUGARCANE HARVESTERS
Abdallah M. Zein El-den
1
, Saad F. Ahmed
1
, Waleed M. Hanafy
2
, Abdallah E. Elwakeel
3&*
1
Prof., of Ag. Eng., Fac. of Ag., Alexandria U., Alexandria, Alshatby, Egypt.
2
Assist. Prof., of Ag. Eng., Fac. of Ag., Aswan U., Aswan, Egypt.
3
Assist. Lect., of Ag. Eng., Fac. of Ag., Aswan U. Aswan, Egypt.
* abdallah_elshawadfy@agr.aswu.edu.eg
© Misr J. Ag. Eng. (MJAE)
Keywords:
Sugarcane, Physical and
mechanical properties,
Cutting methods, knife
edges, blade angles
ABSTRACT
Sugarcane represents the main cash crop in Upper Egypt. Area
cultivated with sugarcane over 300,000 feds with average
production 48 t/fed and total production may reach 16 million
tons. The cost of labor has been increasing where the price is
uncompetitive with the cost of mechanical harvesting with
imported machines. Egypt needs to change its sugarcane
harvesting methods from manual harvesting to mechanization to
match the development occurred in similar countries. To
mechanize sugarcane harvesting. Local cheap harvester should
be manufactured considering our particular conditions. The study
aimed to review and conclude some parameters the base cutter of
a sugarcane harvester. The parameters, many include Physical
and mechanical properties of sugar cane, cutting methods and
types of knife edges, blade angles for cutting blades, cutting
velocity (rotational speed) and forward velocity. Several
researchers have been reviewing and reporting these parameters
from variable point of views and variable objectives.
INTRODUCTION
he parameters related to the base cutter of a sugarcane harvester:
1. Physical and mechanical properties of sugar cane:
Bosoi et al. (1996) reported that the sugarcane cutting force depends on the physical
and mechanical properties of the sugarcane stalk and the thickness of the cutting blade. El-
Nakib et al. (1996) performed tests on the Egyptian sugar cane variety C9 and they found that
the average diameter of the stalk was 2.3 cm, and the cane stalk hardness was 775 N. Drees,
(2005) mentioned that the cutting force changed from 1272 N to 1140 N through the stalk
bottom, at stalk middle decreased from 1116 to 936 N and at the top of stalk cutting force
declined down to reach 768 N. The maximum diameters of the cane stalks during harvest were
2.1 cm and 3.05 cm respectively at bottom and top. Taghinezhad et al. (2012) found that the
maximum force increased from 313.75 to 592.74 N when the stalk diameters increased between
1.715-1.764 to 2.547-2.729 cm at internode and it also increased from 350.30 to 811.97 N when
the stalk diameters increased between 17.23-17.88 to 24.49-25.35 mm at node. Samaila et al.
(2012) reported that 401.5 N and 1310.35 N were needed for cutting the top and base of the
T