Modification and Development of Self Propelled Walk behind Finger Type Cotton Stripper

A self-propelled finger type cotton stripper was modified and developed with the help CAD software for the improvement of its performance. In the modified self-propelled finger type cotton stripper, the stripping fingers of 660mm length were mounted on 650 mm long mild steel square box (32x32x4) with the help of fasteners on front side of engine frame at an angle of 21⁰. The width of the developed header was 650 mm. A rotating paddle/kicker, having a speed in the range of 120–250 rpm, was designed to push the stripped materials (cotton bolls i.e. opened and closed along with sticks and burs) in to the collecting tank. A collecting drum/tank, having a capacity of 15–20 kg, was attached just behind the cotton stripper head for collecting stripped cotton material. The modified prototype was evaluated for RCH-773 cotton variety to observe its performance. The average picking efficiency and field capacity of developed cotton stripper was observed to be in the range of 82–90% and 0.12–0.14 ha/h, respectively. On an average observed value of seed-cotton output through the boll crusher cum seed-cotton extractor was found to be 78.36%. Trash content in cotton picking with stripper was higher in the range of 14–18% as compared to the manual picking(4.9%). On an average picking efficiency of modified cotton stripper was improved by 10.17%.and average trash content of modified cotton stripper was reduced by 42.67%.