Design, development and evaluation of cutter bar type maize header

In India, most of the maize combine harvester currently being used employs snap roll type header. Since, this type of header is costly and is not independent of rows, less effective in case of a lodged crop. Hence, there was a need to develop a new technology which would be both cheaper and effective. Keeping these requirements in mind, a new cutter bar header has been developed for maize crop harvester. This header uses the conventional reciprocating cutter bar that is generally used for wheat and paddy. The diameter of the cutter bar reel is kept more so as to handle the tall maize plants. The performance evaluation of the cutter bar type maize header is done in a lodged and a partially lodged (30–40%) maize crop. The maize header is capable of cutting the maize crop, irrespective of the width of the row. The pre-harvest losses varied from 84.87–164.91 kg/ha. For lodged crops, the header losses varied from 19.18–26.71% and for partial lodged crops it was varied from 5.28–10.14% respectively. The cylinder losses for partial lodged crop varied from 2.70- 2.86% and for lodged crop it varied from 0.85–2.04%. The mean cleaning efficiency for lodged and partial lodged maize crop was found as 88.87% and 90.58% respectively. The grain damage for lodged and partial lodged crop was observed as 8.31% and 5.94% respectively. The trash content for lodged and partial lodged crop was 2.75 and 3.45% respectively.