SHREDDING EFFICIENCY OF AGRICULTURAL CROP SHREDDER AS INFLUENCED BY FORWARD SPEED OF OPERATION, NUMBER OF BLADES AND PERIPHERAL VELOCITY

ABSTRACT In India, annually 500 million tons of crop residues are produced, out which 81-141 million tons of residues are burned in the field. Burning of crop residues, which causes environmental pollution as well as loss of plant nutrients like N, P, K and S. Therefore, appropriate management of crop residues assumes a great significance. Shredders are used widely and their performance study is an important factor for wide scale adoption. Hence, the present investigation was taken up to assess the shredding efficiency of agricultural crop shredders as influenced by operational parameters. A total number of 81 field experiments were conducted in cotton field. The influence of the selected level of variability of three levels of operational speed (viz. 2, 3 and 5 km hr-1), three levels of peripheral velocity (viz. 18.75, 24.27 and 27.80 ms-1) and three levels of number of blades (viz. 2, 4 and 6) on the shredding efficiency of an experimental shredder, in terms of length of cut of the stalk were investigated. Increase in peripheral velocity from 18.75 to 27.80 ms-1, number of blades from 2 to 6 and reducing the forward speed of operation from 5 to 2 km hr-1 resulted in decreased length of cut. Six numbers of blades with 2 km hr-1 forward speed of operation and 27.80 ms-1 peripheral velocity recorded the lowest value of length of cut at the highest per cent in selected different scale level L1= 18.30, L2=23. 66, L3=30. 98, L4= 22.09 and L5= 4.97 per cent respectively