The objective of this research is to develop, fabricate and test a combine header to suit canola harvest and to reduce the header grain losses.
The developed header was fabricated at the AboKeer factory in Alex, and tested in Nobaria farms. The proposed header unit was designed and fabricated after considering most of the criteria that affect the canola harvest operation. The job of the header unit starts after the canola plant being riped and cut the canola stem before the combine reel touch the plants. The developed header unit consists mainly of three parts: the frame, two cutterbar (horizontal and vertical) and power transmission.
The horizontal cutterbar has forty fixed knifes (76.2 mm) and forty movable knives, eight-knives holder and fixed on the cutter bar holder. The cutterbar is powered mechanically through V. belt from the main cutterbar power system and it moves at a speed of 1.5 m/s with a knife stroke of 76.2 mm. The horizontal cutterbar attached to a special frame. The vertical cutter bar has two bar each one has twenty-eight knives (50 mm) work as double acting knife. The vertical cutterbar is powered by 12 v electrical motor. The propose of the vertical cutter bar is to cut the interaction between plant branches in the right side of the combine above the outer shoes (crop divider) to help the cut crop to inter the combine without drag the standing plant.
The field test showed that the recommended forward speed is the fourth speed 4 km/h which gives the best results in terms of higher field capacity (1.67 fed/h), and the best performance is in terms of less grain losses, best handling of the crop inside the combine and best speed for the combine maneuverability under the test condition of this study.
Modifying the combine header affect each of field capacity, harvesting rate, grain losses but not cleaning efficiency. Using the new header gave the combine better performance. Using the new header had its evident impact on the amount of increased field capacity about (11-20 %), decreased the total grain losses about 8.8%. The cleaning efficiency was about 85.9% at the recommended forward speed.