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Design and Development of a Mini Sugarcane Harvester

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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-7711-6_44

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Design and Development of a Mini
Sugarcane Harvester

M. A. Nagarjun, N. C. Mahendra Babu, and Manjunath M. Ullegaddi

Abstract Harvesting is a crucial activity of sugarcane production, which affects

overall productivity. Timely harvest is very essential to achieve better quality and
high yield, but shortage of labours during this time incurs major losses to farmers.
Manual harvesting of sugarcane is a very labour-intensive and arduous activity, inter-
vention of mechanical systems for harvesting frees harvest labours from drudgery
and helps to improve productivity. Existing harvesting machinery is of huge size
and is not suitable for Indian farming canopy and also not affordable to farmers
with small landholdings. The proposed work was aimed at developing a low-cost
mini sugarcane-harvesting machine, which has a very small footprint and a simple
mechanism for cutting sugarcane at the base. Detailed design of the subsystems and
components have been carried out to realize the final working prototype. The devel-
oped machine is capable of harvesting sugarcane with a single cut leaving partial to
no edge damage on the cut surface. Different varieties of sugarcane of diameter up
to 40 mm can be harvested with the developed harvester. The developed machine
can also be employed for harvesting other similar crops with same cutter assembly
or by using separate attachments. Cost and time of harvesting can be significantly
reduced by employing the developed harvester, leading to increased productivity.

Keywords Sugarcane harvesting · Kinematics of base cutter · Stalk damage ·

Quality of cut

M. A. Nagarjun (B) · N. C. Mahendra Babu · M. M. Ullegaddi

Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Ramaiah University of Applied
Sciences, Bengaluru, India
e-mail: nagarjun.arjun1111@gmail.com
N. C. Mahendra Babu
e-mail: ncmbabu@gmail.com
M. M. Ullegaddi
e-mail: mmullegaddi.k@gmail.com

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license 427
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
K. M. Pandey et al. (eds.), Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering, Lecture Notes
in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7711-6_44
428 M. A. Nagarjun et al.

1 Introduction

Sugarcane is an important commercial crop in India. India is the second-largest global

producer of sugarcane next to Brazil and the world’s leading sugar consumer. India’s
total sugarcane cultivation area is 5.1 million ha and production is 352 million tons
with an average productivity of 71 tons/ha (ICAR-SBI Report 2017). Uttar Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are the major
sugarcane growing states contributing about 81% of the total production in India.
About fifty million farmers are engaged in sugarcane cultivation across the country.
Sugar industry in India is the second-largest agroprocessing industry, which has a
huge share in the growth of industrialization and socio-economic changes in rural
parts of the country. Harvesting is one of the most labour intensive and arduous
operation in sugarcane cultivation. Manual harvesting of sugarcane is most common
in India. About 850–1000 man-hours per hectare is required for manual sugarcane
harvesting with traditional tools (Yadav 2002). Sugarcane harvesting involves base
cutting of sugarcane, stripping, detopping, bundle making and finally transporting the
sugarcane to sugar mills. Manual sugarcane harvesting employing traditional tools
is highly labour intensive and involves high cost of operation out of all sugarcane
production operations. Timely harvesting is critical and delayed harvesting affects
the quality of sugarcane, yield, juice quality and sugar recovery. Under these circum-
stances, the sugar industry is looking for replacing manual harvesting with alternate
mechanical means at a reasonable cost.
Although huge sized imported/locally produced harvesting machines are avail-
able in the market, they are finding very limited acceptance due to large-sized foot-
print, huge investment and unsuitable method of harvesting. Performance evaluations
(Yadav et al. 2002) carried out on the sugarcane chopper harvester have proven that
these machines are very expensive. Due to their high costs and initial investment,
presently available mechanical harvesters are out of reach for small and medium
farmers. Apart from this, existing harvesters are not suitable for harvesting in small-
sized fields and due to narrow spacing of rows which is practiced in India. In addi-
tion, billets from chopper harvesting cause deterioration of cane quickly and must
be processed within 24 h post-harvest, which is not possible in Indian practice. In
view of the above-listed findings, a partially mechanized, small to medium-sized
harvesting machine would seem more suitable for Indian farming practices and
canopy. A compact and cost-effective machine is preferable to address the issue
of non-availability of labour and the present work is an attempt in this direction.

2 Problem Definition

Sugarcane being one of the most important cash crop in India, needs mechaniza-
tion intervention to increase productivity. One of the important operations in sugar-
cane cultivation is harvesting which is presently done manually. Manual sugarcane
Design and Development of a Mini Sugarcane Harvester 429

harvesting is a very labour-intensive and arduous activity. Harvest labourers experi-

ence fatigue due to excessive stress on the joints and muscles. In other countries adap-
tion of mechanical harvesting systems has freed harvest labourers from this drudgery.
Typically to harvest one hectare of sugarcane, it requires 3.3–4.2 machine-hours by
mechanical harvesting whereas 850–1000 man-hours by manual harvesting (Yadav
et al. 2002). In the Indian context, mechanical harvesting of sugarcane is expen-
sive due to large-sized machineries which are capital intensive and not affordable
to small/medium farmers. Hence, development of a small-sized compact harvester
that is affordable would help Indian farmers in reducing labour cost and drudgery
involved in sugarcane harvesting.

3 Methodology

After identifying the need for a small and compact sugarcane harvester, a systematic
approach was formulated to design and develop the proposed harvester. The aim
was to design and develop a walk-behind type mini sugarcane harvester suitable
for small/medium landholdings. To execute the systematic development, specific
objectives were established. The main objectives are, to review literature on sugar-
cane harvesting practices, physical–mechanical properties of sugarcane and existing
machineries, arrive at the specifications, develop different concepts for harvesting
mechanism and lastly to synthesize the finalized concept. Further, detailed design
of the synthesized concept was carried out to facilitate fabrication of components,
sub-assemblies and the same were integrated to realize the proposed sugarcane
harvester.

4 Design and Development

In order to develop the specification of the harvester, a detailed literature survey and
field visit was carried out. The literature review covered the current practices and
status of production, varieties of sugarcane produced, and existing machinery. The
field visit and interaction with farmers helped to identify farming and planting prac-
tices and to establish the canopy of sugarcane (Fig. 1). The field visit also gave insight
into farmers’ requirements about harvesting. The data gathered was interpreted and
converted to design specifications applying quality function deployment tool. These
specifications are useful in detailed designing of components and subsystems. Data
such as row to row distance, cane distribution length, in line cane spacing length,
average stalk height, average number of shoots, average stalk diameter, etc. were
gathered. These data were useful in generation of concept of cutter assembly and
also in design of the cutter.
430 M. A. Nagarjun et al.

Fig. 1 Typical sugarcane canopy

4.1 Sugarcane Harvester System

Based on the developed specifications, typical conceptualized harvester system

consists of three important subsystems. The subsystems are represented in block
diagram as shown in Fig. 2, which consist of
• Transmission System
• Traction System
• Base cutter Assembly.

Fig. 2 Block diagram of mini sugarcane harvester

Design and Development of a Mini Sugarcane Harvester 431

Fig. 3 CAD concept of the

dual base cutter sugarcane
harvester

4.2 Concept Generation

Based on the study of existing machineries such as John Deere CH330 and Case IH
Auto Soft sugarcane harvesters, it was evident that these machinery cut the sugarcane
stalks into billets which is a drawback as it needs to be processed within a day after
harvesting. This method of cutting into billets is not ideal for Indian scenario of sugar
production as there will be delay in processing. Hence, a compact harvesting machine
capable of cutting sugarcane at ground level which can be topped later and can be
conveniently operated in a small field is required to cater to the needs of farmers who
have small land holdings. Based on the derived specifications four different concepts
were generated to suit the canopy requirements and finally the dual disc base cutter
sugarcane harvester concept which met overall necessary requirements was selected.
Final Concept
The selected concept of dual base cutter sugarcane harvester shown in Fig. 3 facilitates
maximum area coverage and high productivity. Single cut of sugarcane stalk can be
achieved by conveniently optimizing the harvester speed. Various other kinematic
parameters can also be optimized to achieve still higher performance of the cutter.
This dual cutter system offers high inertia and impact forces on the stalk during
cutting ensuring complete cut. Also, manufacturing and assembly of the cutter to the
system is comparatively easy for the selected concept.

4.3 Synthesis of Base Cutter

Design of the dual base cutter system is outlined in this section. A mathematical
model developed by Kroes [1], which describes the kinematics of dual base cutter
has been employed to determine the maximum permissible velocity ratio i.e. ratio of
432 M. A. Nagarjun et al.

harvester forward speed to disc rotational speed. This model calculates the ratio to
maintain total blade coverage of the sugarcane crop and to prevent contact between
the uncut stalks and discs based on the base cutter and crop parameters.
Figure 4 shows the path traversed by consecutive blades with inner and outer blade
radii. The model is applicable to double horizontal discs where the crop is centred
between these two discs. The blades on both the discs are phased in order to prevent
contacting each other. The maximum permissible velocity ratio for the harvester is
defined as follows.
Ra The maximum permissible velocity to ensure that all the cane row area, which
does not pass through the gap between the discs is covered by the blade paths.
Rc Maximum permissible velocity ratio to prevent contact between the base cutter
discs and any stalk prior to completion of cut.
Rs Maximum permissible velocity ratio to ensure that all the cane row area which
passes through the gap between the discs is covered by the blade paths.

Area coverage—The maximum permissible velocity ratio necessary for the

complete harvest of a row centred between two discs [1],
1 1
(r02 − Y 2 ) 2 − (r12 − Y 2 ) 2
Ra =     (1)
β + cos−1 rY0 − cos rY1

Substituting the parameters from Table 1 to Eq. 1 we get,

Ra = 0.79

Fig. 4 Dual rotary disc cutting system [1]

Design and Development of a Mini Sugarcane Harvester 433

Table 1 Base cutter

Inner blade radius (r i ) 125 mm
parameters
Outer blade radius (r o ) 175 mm
Distance from outside of the row to disc center(Y) 100 mm
Disc incline angle (ϕ) 150
Number of blades (n) 5
Cane diameter (c) 50 mm
Disc separation distance (S) 300 mm
Blade separation angle (β) 720
Blade width (h) 60 mm
Stalk base angle (ζ ) 100

Disc contact—Maximum permissible velocity ratio for the requirement that all the
crop area be covered with no disc contact [1] is,
1 1
(r02 − Y 2 ) 2 − (r12 − Y 2 ) 2 − c∗
Rc =     (2)
β + cos−1 rY0 − cos rY1

Substituting the parameters from Table 1 to Eq. 2 we get,

Rc = 0.25

Disc gap—For the blade tip radius of one disc does not overlap the radius of the
opposing disc [1] then,
1
(r z2 − Z 2 ) 2
Rs =   (3)
2 cos−1 rZz + β

Substituting the parameters from Table 1 to Eq. 3 we get,

Rs = 1.52

The velocity ratio of the dual base cutter for the condition that all the area of the
row is within the disc gaps (Ra ), No disc contact for the incomplete cut stalk (Rc )
and disc gap (Rs ) [1] is given by,

Rmin (Ra , Rb , Rc ) (4)

From the above condition,

Rmin = Rc
434 M. A. Nagarjun et al.

4.4 Cutting Speed of the Disc Cutter

Critical cutting speed reported for sugarcane by Gupta and Oduori (1992) was in
the range of 13.8–18.4 m/s for a straight cut. Mathanker [2] reported that the cutting
speed below 10 m/s, the bending resistance of the partially cut stalk section was rigid
to oppose the cutting arm impact. Based on the study to determine the cutting speed
for sugarcane by Mathanker [2] it was noted that the critical speed was in the range
of 12–15 m/s. Based on the above findings, a critical cutting speed of disc = 15 m/s
for 300 oblique angle is adapted.
By using equations V = R * ω and ω = 2π N/60 we get the required speed of
cutter as N = 573 rpm and maximum harvester forward speed of 3.06 km/h.

4.5 Power Required for Cutting Sugarcane Stalks

Based on the mechanical testing carried by Kanchan et al. (2015) to assess the
mechanical properties of sugarcane stalk, it is reported that the specific shearing
energy for variety CO80632 by averaging the test results for 5 stalk samples having
an average diameter of 22 mm is 18,010 J/m2 .
Sureshkumar et al. [3] have carried out tests to determine mechanical properties
of sugarcane for variety CO80632 of average diameter 30 mm and reported that the
specific cutting energy ranged from 27,000 to 37,000 J/m2 . For a tilt angle of 200
and oblique angle of 300 the specific cutting energy was found to be 23,000 J/m2 .
Therefore, considering the specific cutting energy = 23,000 J/m2 , equivalent torque
is 16.25 N m. Hence, the power required to operate each cutter is,

P = 1.3 hp

To operate two cutters power required is 2.6 hp.

4.6 Synthesis of Traction System

As per the canopy requirements, the minimum ground clearance of cutting disc from
ground is set at 200 mm. Farm tractor tires of specification 6.00 –12 (Width of
the tire in inches—Diameter of the rim in inches) 6 ply has an overall diameter of
635 mm. The overall height from ground to axle shaft centre with 200 mm cutter
ground clearance is approximately 315 mm. This required height can be achieved by
using the tires with the above specifications and the same has been selected.
The overall weight of the harvester system is estimated to be 100 kg considering
all the subsystems. Considering this dynamic vertical load, the power required to
pull the system is P = 1.48 hp. The overall power required for both traction and
Design and Development of a Mini Sugarcane Harvester 435

Fig. 5 Layout of
three-speed gearbox

base cutter assembly is 4.08 hp. Hence, a standard available petrol engine of 5 hp is
selected and incorporated.

4.7 Synthesis of Transmission System

The function of the gearbox was to transfer the drive from engine to the wheels
and the base cutter as per required reduction. There were no readily available stan-
dard gearboxes, which provides one forward, reverse and cutter speeds as a single
system. To cater to this need a three-speed two-stage reduction compound gearbox
has been designed and realized. Figure 5 illustrates the layout of the designed gearbox
indicating the different speeds.

4.8 Prototype of the Developed Mini Sugarcane Harvester

See Fig. 6.
436 M. A. Nagarjun et al.

Fig. 6 Prototype of mini

sugarcane harvester

4.9 Testing of Mini Sugarcane Harvester

Testing of the machine needs to be carried out to check whether the design is working
as per the set requirements of the harvester. These test results indicate the effec-
tiveness of working for the intended application and help in further refinements to
increase the efficiency.
A test setup was prepared mimicking the canopy requirements, where a wooden
plank of dimension 1200 mm × 300 mm × 75 mm was selected as a base for the
sugarcane stalks. The plank was divided into three 100 mm columns, and holes
of 32 mm in diameter were drilled along the length at four to five locations each
separated by a distance of approximately 250 mm as shown in Fig. 7.
Sugarcane stalks with an average diameter of 38 mm were firmly inserted into the
holes in upright position. After inserting the stalks, the test setup was placed in the

Fig. 7 Wooden plank and

sugarcane stalk used for
testing
Design and Development of a Mini Sugarcane Harvester 437

Fig. 8 Test setup placed in the field

field and locked into the ground with the help of hooks at two positions as shown in
Fig. 8.

5 Results and Discussions

The developed harvesting machine has been tested for intended application and the
performance has been found to be satisfactory. Mello [4] reported the classification
of the damages caused to stalks after mechanized harvest indicating the upper and
lower limits of damage as shown in Fig. 9. The most important factor in determining
the quality of cut is the first partial cut and is dependent on both the harvester forward

Fig. 9 Classification of stalk damages [4]

438 M. A. Nagarjun et al.

Fig. 10 Results of quality of cut—test-1

Fig. 11 Results of quality of cut—test-2

speed and rotational speed of the cutter. Test results for two trials are shown in Figs. 10
and 11. When the harvester speed is more, it causes initial partial cut to penetrate
deep into the cane, which leads to shatter of the stalk indicated in the results of
first test (Fig. 10). During the second test with decreased harvester speed, the stalk
damage was very low as initial partial cut was less resulting in minor edge damage
to no damage indicated as shown in Fig. 11. Factors like sugarcane varieties, soil
conditions, stalk orientation and the maturity of crop play a significant role in the
quality of cut. Further, blade oblique angle of 300 incorporated for blades has resulted
in better cutting performance.

6 Conclusions

Detailed specification of a mini sugarcane harvester suitable for Indian farming

conditions has arrived through literature review and field study. The harvester with
these specifications is suitable for harvesting one row of sugarcane meeting the Indian
farming practices making it suitable for small farmers. Base cutter assembly has
been designed considering kinematics, cutting mechanics and cutting coverage area
to ensure complete harvesting along a single row. Transmission system consisting of
three-speed gearbox, transmission for traction and transmission for cutter assembly
has been successfully designed and realized. The developed harvesting machine has
been tested for intended application and the performance was found to be satisfactory.
Manual harvesting of sugarcane which is achieved in one day can be reduced to three
 Design and Development of a Mini Sugarcane Harvester 439

hours by the use of developed harvesting machine leading to reduction of harvesting

cost by 70% compared to manual harvesting.

References

1. S. Kroes, H.D. Harris, A kinematic model of the dual basecutter of a sugarcane harvester. J.
Agric. Eng. Res 62, 163–172 (1995)
2. S.K. Mathanker, T.E. Grift, A.C. Hansen, Effect of blade oblique angle and cutting speed on
cutting energy for energycane stems. Biosys. Eng. 133, 64–70 (2015)
3. P.K. Sureshkumar, D.M. Jesudas, Physico-mechanical properties of sugar cane stalks related to
mechanical harvesting. J. Tropic. Agric. 53(1), 48–55 (2015)
4. R.D.C. Mello, H. Harris, Performance of basecutter of sugarcane harvester with angled and
serrated blades. Revista Brasileira De Engenharia Agrícola E Ambiental 7(2), 355–358 (2003)

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