Development and Field Evaluation of a Rotary Hydraulic Divider for Canola Harvesting

Oil seed rape is an important non-cereal crop used mainly for edible oil production. Canola pods are fragile and its branches are twisted together at harvesting time. Harvesting with a conventional combine can pull off twisted branches and cause appreciable losses in the vicinity of divider at combine header. In this study, a hydraulic rotary divider was designed and developed to separate twisted pods and reduce the grain loss. The device is made up of two cylinders and a number of fingers, the cylinders rotate in opposite direction and fingers move in and out through holes on cylinder walls. The assembly was expected to separate the twisted pods and reduce grain loss. A hydraulic motor driven by combine hydraulic system was used to rotate the separating cylinders. The separating assembly was installed on righthand side of the combine harvester header. A split-plot experiment was used to evaluate the performance of the unit. Field tests were carried out at combine forward speed of 1.5 kmh-1. Variables were: cylinders rotary speed in three levels (50, 75 and 100 rpm), the number of fingers in three levels (16, 12 and 8), and the tests were conducted with and without combine reel. Two different positions of finger protrusion were also considered in field tests. The results were compared with those of a conventional combine header. The results show that the medium rotational speed (75 rpm) exhibited lowest seed loss. Furthermore, as the number of fingers increased, the seed loss tended to decrease. The seed loss also decreased in the presence of combine reel. Also, findings showed there is no significant difference between the two protrusions trajectories of fingers. A twenty percent decrease in seed loss was observed at rotary speed of 75 rpm and number of fingers of 16 in the presence of combine reel.