OVERVIEW OF THE MODERN DESIGNS OF SUNFLOWER HEADER

Sunflower is one of the most important oilseeds. Ukraine is a world leader in the production and processing of sunflower. Seeds is the main value of sunflower, which are used as raw materials for oil production. In 2019–2020, 16.5 million tons of sunflower were harvested. This is more than in Russia, the EU and Argentina. The sunflower processing into a finished product contains the main stages: growing sunflower, harvesting seeds, cleaning seeds, peeling seeds, hydrothermal treatment, extraction process, refining and pouring oil into containers. The sunflower harvesting is one of the most important and responsible stages of sunflower production. To implement this process, conventional combine harvesters are used, which are aggregated with specially designed devices – sunflower harvesters. The results of the analysis of some of the most popular models of sunflower harvesters is presented in the article. An overview of the sunflower harvesters produced by the world's leading manufacturers is presented. Among them are such manufacturers as John Deer «Frontier SH», Claas «Sunspeed», Moresil «G-4570», Oros «Sun», Сapello «Helianthus», Franco Fabril «SF», Geringhoff «SunLite», Geringhoff «SunStar», Geringhoff «SunStar». Berdyansk Plant of Agricultural Machinery, VKO MAANS, CB Alfa are manufacturers of sunflower harvesters in Ukraine. The main features of the new sunflower harvester and differences from the traditional design are analyzed. Each of these sunflower harvesters has its advantages, which allow us to improve certain production results depending on the priorities set by the producers (reduction of seed losses, less weight and metal consumption of harvesters, additional grinding of stems, etc.). These improvements are achieved by installing additional design elements or improving their basic design. Based on the analysis of the survey results, it was found that modern foreign producers offer a variety of solutions to intensify the collection of sunflower and reduce seed losses.