AN UPWARD CUTTING CUT-AND-THROW FORAGE HARVESTER TO REDUCE MACHINE ENERGY REQUIREMENTS

Abstract

ABSTRACT An alternative forage harvester was developed to reduce machine energy requirements by utilizing an upward cutting cut-and-throw configuration. The cutterhead was inverted from its conventional orientation so that the knives entered the mat of uncut material from below. This upward cutting concept allowed the chopped material to be thrown directly out of the cutterhead without the subsequent friction loss of sliding the chopped material one-half revolution around the cutterhead housing as typical with conventional cut-and-throw configurations. This upward cutting configuration reduced specific energy requirements by 30 and 34% compared to conventional cut-and-throw and cut-and-blow configurations, respectively. The machine's throwing and blowing capabilities were considered adequate to convey chopped forage to a trailing wagon, although throwing distance was only about 60% as great as a cut-and-blow harvester.