Forage harvester

The forage harvester is an agricultural implement for holding, crushing and loading of crops such as grass, alfalfa or corn, especially in the preparation of silage or whole crop silage, next to the device lately become increasingly important in the harvesting of renewable resources. Another field of application is the chopping of straw. This is intended to better properties are achieved when used as bedding material.

Types of forage

The forage harvester can be with regard to the design of the cutting elements ( ie the Häckselwerkes ) differ in three main forms:

• In Forage Harvester already mowed or not mowed crop is by Schlegel, which are mounted on a horizontal, arranged at right angles to the direction of the rotating shaft, taken in the interaction of the flail shaft ripped with a fixed counter-blade and through the ejection tower ( chimney ) to a nebenherfahrendes transport vehicle spun. Advantageously, the Forage Harvester is the simple and robust design, it is disadvantageous that ground unevenness can easily lead to contamination of the crop through with recorded earth. Video of a drawn harvester in action

• In Scheibenradhäckslern however, the crops are picked up either a pickup or directly to deck or corn head out and fed to the actual -in shredder. The cutting and carrying on the transport vehicle is done here by a set with knives and throwing blades disc which rotates about a horizontal shaft in the direction of travel. Cut length ( four are desired to twenty mm) can be adjusted by changing the number of blades, the speed of the disk rotation speed and Erntegutzuführung.

• The drum forage, the crop is also taken directly from the mower or corn head from either a pickup or and as cutting and throwing organ serving rapidly rotating cutterhead supplied. The drum is placed at right angles to the flow of material and about 20 to 50 meters, which are simultaneously formed as a cutting and throwing body fitted. The average length of the chopped material ( also four to twenty mm) as in Cutting disc by changing the number of blades on the drum, the rate of supply of the crop or the speed of the chopper drum can be determined. Modern self -propelled forage harvesters have a cutting capacity of up to 25,000 cuts per minute. In the recovery of fodder maize, a preparer is behind the cutterhead still required, the aufquetscht the corn kernels and thus makes digestible. Due to the limited throw of the chopper drum, the shredded crop is thrown by means of post-accelerator through the tower onto the transport vehicle.

Next between self-propelled forage harvesters or on a tractor in the front or rear mounting attached or drawn from this forage harvesters, as well as the side-mounted beside the tractor sidecar forage is to be distinguished.

Other methods chain

Typically, the chopped crop is loaded on a transport vehicle driving alongside, end. These are usually tractors with trailers of 30-50 m³ load volume. In some countries, partly trucks are used as transport vehicles for use. Similarly, the chopper can also drawn by himself trailer loaded (about the first passage through the field of providing a transportation lane ), with a special means for pulling a semi-trailer or a fixed-mounted bunker (eg for difficult ground conditions - the crop is passed at the field edge ) are equipped.

When Anhäckseln (regional and tapping ) of a corn field high concentration of the drivers involved is usually required. If the neighboring field can not be driven because about not yet harvested, the transport vehicle can not drive next to the chopper ago. The ejection tower of the chopper is then pivoted to the rear, the transport vehicle travels at a short distance behind. For tractor-trailer - trailer combinations must when the tractor follows the chopper, the throw distance sufficient to throw the crop over the length of the tractor. In part, therefore, to observe that the tractor - trailer combination in reverse, ie with the trailer directly behind the tractor, subsequent to the chopper. Sudden stop of the chopper driver of obstacles or blockages lead in both cases quickly to rear-end collisions.

History

Forage are with the latest agricultural machinery. Since its invention by Friedrich sailors (then Schlawe, later Quakenbruck ) in the 1940s, they have evolved into high performance machines and are currently used in agriculture as the largest vehicle category. In previous years, forage harvester were mainly used as PTO -powered implements ( mostly on the three-point linkage, sometimes pulled ) designed for tractors.

With the increasing use of maize production in northern areas and the rationalization of agriculture, the first self-propelled have come on the market in the 1970s. Initially, the working width was about two meters at an engine capacity of less than 75 kW. In line with the increasing farm sizes in agriculture offered the manufacturer to ever larger machines; now corn - reapers with 10 meters working width and motor outputs up to 750 kW are available. With special equipment, forage harvester can now be used for the harvesting of energy crops (eg short rotation coppice ). By thus given broader range of applications and the high standards expected to be reckoned with even more powerful machines in the future.

Today, about 2,000 annually self -propelled forage harvesters are sold worldwide. World leader in the manufacture and sale of self-propelled forage harvester Claas is the company in Harsewinkel. The largest currently on the market shredder is the Big X 1100 supplied crown with 758 kW engine power.