VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Jnana Sangama, Belagavi – 590018

A Project Report
On
“DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF SUGARCANE NODE CUTTER
MACHINE ”

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements as a part of the curriculum,

Bachelors of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering

Submitted by
AKSHAY DESHBHANDARI (1CR17ME008)
ADESH K S (1CR17ME003)
KARTHIK K S (1CR18ME409)
DILEEP S L (1CR18ME407)

Carried out at
CMR Institute of Technology

Under the Guidance of

Dr. Sagar M Baligidad
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Department of Mechanical Engineering

CMR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
132, AECS Layout, Kundalahalli, ITPL Main Rd, Bengaluru – 560037
2020-21
 CMR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
132, AECS Layout, Kundalahalli colony, ITPL Main Rd, Bengaluru-560037
Department of Mechanical Engineering

CERTIFICATE
Certified that the project work entitled “DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF
SUGARCANE NODE CUTTER MACHINE” is a bonafide work carried out by Mr. AKSHAY
DESHBHANDARI, Mr. ADESH K S, Mr. KARTHIK K S, Mr. DILEEP S L bonafide
students of CMR Institute of Technology in partial fulfillment for of the requirements as a part
of the curriculum, Bachelors of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering, of Visvesvaraya
Technological University, Belagavi during the year 2020-21. It is certified that all
correction/suggestion indicated for Internal Assessment have been incorporated in the report
deposited in the departmental library. The project report has been approved as it satisfies the
academic requirements in respect of the project work prescribed for the bachelor of engineering
degree.

(Dr. Sagar M Baligidad) (Dr. Ramachandran S) (Dr. Sanjay Jain)

Signature of the Guide Signature of the HOD Signature of the Principal

Examiners
Name of the examiners Signature with date

1.

2.

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 DECLARATION

We, students of Eighth Semester, B.E, Mechanical Engineering, CMR Institute of Technology,
declare that the project work titled “Investigation on Improving Biogas Production Rate and
its Properties from Different Biomass Samples” has been carried out by us and submitted in
partial fulfillment of the course requirements for the award of degree in Bachelor of Engineering
in Mechanical Engineering of Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi, during the
academic year 2020-2021.

AKSHAY DESHBHANDARI KARTHIK K S

(1CR17ME008) (1CR18ME409)

ADESH K S DILEEP S L
(1CR17ME003) (1CR18ME407)

Place: Bengaluru
Date:

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The satisfaction and euphoria that accompany the successful completion of any task would be
incomplete without the mention of the people who made it possible, whose constant guidance and
encouragement crowned the efforts with success.

We would like to profoundly thank Management of CMR Institute of Technology for providing
such a healthy environment for the successful completion of Project Work.

We would like to express our thanks to the Principal Dr. Sanjay Jain for their encouragement that
motivated us for the successful completion of Project Work.

It gives us immense pleasure to thank Dr. S Ramachandran Professor & HoD of Mechanical
Engineering, CMRIT, Bengaluru, for his constant support and encouragement.

Also, we would like to express our deepest sense of gratitude to our Project Work guide Mr.Sagar
M Baligidad Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering for his constant support
and guidance throughout the Project Work.

We would also like to thank the Project Work Coordinator Mr. Prashant.S.Hatti Assistant
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and all other teaching and non-teaching staff of
Mechanical Engineering Department who has directly or indirectly helped us in the completion of
the Project Work.

Last, but not the least, we would hereby acknowledge and thank our parents who have been a
source of inspiration and also instrumental in the successful completion of the Project Work

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 ABSTRACT
Sugarcane planting with traditional methods is costly, time-consuming and necessary compression
of buds in the field is not achieved easily because of stalk planting in sugarcane. In tradition
planting method, great human force and high volume of sugarcane stalk in hectare is required. To
solve this problem and mechanizing of sugarcane planting, we suggest the application of machine
vision system and Image Processing methods to identify nodes from sugarcane and to plant it as a
seed by planting machines.

In today’s competitive world needs faster rate production of agriculture products. To produce
maximum sugarcane yield, traditional method is not suitable as sugarcane planting with traditional
methods is costly, time consuming and necessary compression of buds in the field is not achieved
easily because of stalk planting in sugarcane. In tradition planting method, great human force and
high volume of sugarcane stalk in hectare is required. To solve this problem and mechanizing of
sugarcane planting, we suggest the application of machine vision system and Image Processing
methods to identify nodes from sugarcane and to plant it as a seed by planting machine.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
ABSTRACT v
TABLE OF CONTENT vi
LIST OF FIGURES vii

Chapter 1: Introduction 8-11

Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature 12-15

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
2.3 OBJECTIVES
2.4 SCOPE OF PRESENT WORK

Chapter 3: Methodology 16-22

3.1 CONSTRUCTION
3.2 DESIGN
3.3WORKING

Chapter 4: Advantages And Disadvantages 23

4.1 ADVANTAGES
4.2 DISADVANTAGES
4.3 APPLICATION

Chapter 5: Result And Conclusion 24

5.1 CONCLUSION
5.2 FUTURE WORK

Chapter 7: References 25-26

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1

Figure 1.2

Figure 1.3

Figure 1.4

Figure 2.1

Figure 2.2

Figure 2.3

Figure 3.1.1 MOTOR

Figure 3.1.2 UV LIGHT

Figure 3.1.3 BLADE

Figure 3.1.4 HANDWHEEL

Figure 3.1.5 SHAFT AND BEARING

Figure 3.1.6 BIN

Figure 3.2.1 SUGARCANE NODE CUTTER MACHINE DESIGN

Figure. 3.2.2 BACK VIEW OF DESIGN

Figure. 3.2.3 SIDE VIEW OF DESIGN
Figure 3.2.4 TOP VIEW OF DESIGN

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DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF SUGARCANE NODE CUTTER MACHINE

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, Sugarcane is a clonally propagated grass of the Gramineae family characterized
by a high degree of polyploidy and is a crop of major importance providing about 65% of the world
sugar. Reproductive tissue is harvested as the economic product in nearly all field crops but this is
not the case in sugarcane. In sugarcane, the stalks are the harvested tissue and stalk size has a major
influence on yield. Sugarcane planting with traditional method is costly, time-consuming, requires
great human force and high volume of sugarcane stalk per hectares. Now a days sugarcane planting
machines are used to reduce the human force and time. However, these machines do not have
control on cutting location. In uncontrolled cutting process 3 to 6 buds set may get planted instead
of single bud.
There has been virtually some research reported on the variation in size of individual stalk
internodes with position on the stalk and with crop growth. Sugarcane planting with traditional
methods is costly, time-consuming and necessary compression of buds in the field is not achieved
easily because of stalk planting in sugarcane. In tradition planting method, great human force and
high volume of sugarcane stalk in hectare is required. To solve this problem and mechanizing of
sugarcane planting, we suggest the application of machine vision system and image processing
methods to identify nodes from sugarcane and to plant it as a seed by planting machines.
The number of applications using machine vision and digital image processing techniques in the
agricultural sector is increasing rapidly. These applications include land/aerial remote sensing of
crops, detection and recognition of pathological stress conditions, shape and color characterization
of fruits, among many other topics. In fact, quantification of the visual properties of horticultural
products and plants can play an important role to improve and automate agricultural management
tasks.
India is a country which is dependent on Farming as a main source for many families. This is
mainly for increased in nonfarming job opportunities having higher wage, migration of labour
force to cities and low status of agricultural labours in the society. Now a day’s most of the
agricultural equipment's are automated. In India, for conventional system of cultivation, about 6
– 8 tones seed cane is used as planting material, which comprises of about 32,000 stalk pieces/
hectare having 2-3 buds. Sugarcane is a vegetative propagated Crop. This large mass of planting
material poses a great problem in transport, handling and storage of seed cane and undergoes rapid
deterioration thus reducing the viability of buds and subsequently their sprouting.

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Fig. 1.1

Sugarcane planting with traditional method is costly, time-consuming, requires great human force
and high volume of sugarcane stalk per hectares. Now a days sugarcane planting machines are
used to reduce the human force and time. However, these machines do not have control on cutting
location. In uncontrolled cutting process 3 to 6 buds set may get planted instead of single bud.
In addition to proper controlled cutting of stalk, it is necessary to identify any disease in the node
as it affects the yield and quality of the sugarcane. Unfortunately the traditional sugarcane planting
machines do not have any such facility.

Available Techniques:
• Nowadays mostly farmers cut the nodes by using “Koyata”.
• Some farmers use machine saws but it is risky.

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Fig. 1.2

Fig. 1.3

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Fig. 1.4

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CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

Sugarcane planting with traditional methods is costly, time-consuming and necessary
compression of buds in the field is not achieved easily because of stalk planting in sugarcane.
In tradition planting method, great human force and high volume of sugarcane stalk in hectare
is required.

1. Sugarcane is one of the main cash crops in the world, and sugarcane planting and mechanization
are the development trend of the industry (Yadav et al., 2003).
2. However, most of the planting machines in the world do not have the function of bud prevention
in the automatic cutting process of sugarcane seeds.
3. Real-time automatic planter is usually fixed-length cutting, and the efficiency is higher than that
of artificial planting (Mandal and Maji, 2008, Singh and Singh, 2016, Patil et al., 2004, Kumar et
al., 2019).
4. However, the bud injury rate is very higher. The pre-cutting planter uses pre-cut seeds to avoid
seed bud damage and has higher efficiency than the real-time cutting machine (Han et al.,
2019, Namjoo and Razavi, 2014).
5. However, the sugarcane cutting machine can not automatically locate the cane bud. The cutting
efficiency is not high (Pistulkar et al., 2017, Ragupathi et al., 2017, Dileepan et al., 2018).
6. Research and development of sugarcane seed cutting and anti-damage bud system are still in its
infancy.

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Fig 2.1

Fig 2.2

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Fig 2.3

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2.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Sugarcane planting with traditional method is costly, time-consuming, requires great human force
and high volume of sugarcane stalk per hectares. Also the existing (traditional) tools used for bud
chipping of sugar cane are unsafe, messy and need skill and training. The risk of injury is also too
high. This necessitates the development of a node cutting machine for sugar cane. Now a day’s
sugarcane planting machines are used to reduce the human force and time. However, these
machines do not have control on cutting location. In uncontrolled cutting process 3 to 6 buds set
may get planted instead of single bud. This ultimately results into more population of sugarcane
stalk which affects the yield. Sometimes, cut may appear on the bud as well, which results into no
germination of the bud and we lose the seed. In addition to proper controlled cutting of stalk, it is
necessary to identify any disease in the node as it affects the yield and quality of the sugarcane.
Unfortunately the traditional sugarcane planting machines do not have any such facility. This
project deals with solutions to overcome these problems and talks about use of image processing
method for seed selection.

2.3 OBJECTIVES

1. To develop machine which have proper control on cutting location so cut cannot appear on node.
2. To cut maximum nodes at minimum time so efficiency will be increased.
3. To develop machine which is economical and suitable for effective implementation.
4. To utilize the both farming land and sugarcane more efficiently.
5. To reduce the human effort required for sugarcane planting by developing automated sugarcane
node cutting machine.

2.4 SCOPE OF PRESENT WORK

The existing sugarcane node cutting machine machines do not have control on cutting location. To
achieve such accuracy by providing control on cutting location it is simple and effective to use of
image processing method. So there is vast scope to increase the accuracy and effectiveness of
machine by providing control on cutting location by image processing system.

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CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY

3.1 CONSTRUCTION
Proposed methodology starts with assumption that the sugarcane node is said to be normal if the
difference between two consecutive nodes is less than 30 % and there is no crack on stalk. The
system consists of following important components :
 Set of parallel blades
 UV light system
 Hand wheel system for manual operation
 Motor and conveyor belt drive system
 Shaft
 Container or bin

Fig 3.1.1 Motor Fig 3.1.2 UV Light

Power : 0.5 HP Length : 0.6m

Speed : 700 to 800 rpm Power : 50 to 60W
Voltage : 230v Wave length : 250 to 300 nm

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Material: Stainless steel

Diameter: 11.43cm (4.5 inch)

Thickness: 3 to 4mm

Fig 3.1.3 Blade

Overall Diameter: 0.25m

Material: Mild steel

Fig 3.1.4 Handwheel

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Length: 0.8m

Fig 3.1.5 Shaft and bearing

Dimension
Length = 0.6m
Breadth = 0.3m

Fig 3.1.6 Bin

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3.2 DESIGN

Fig. 3.2.1 Sugarcane Node Cutter Machine

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Fig. 3.2.2 Back view of design

Fig. 3.2.3 Side view of design

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Fig. 3.2.4 Top view of design

3.3 WORKING
Sugar cane node cutting machine works on principle of converting rotary motion to the
reciprocating motion by using crank and connecting rod mechanism. Firstly rotary motion given
by the pedal to the pulleys through belt drive. Cutter is connected to cutter rod so, cutting stroke
is occur. It works in two stages simultaneously

 Motor is connected to the power supply.

 As the blades are connected to the motor through belt drive, they also start to rotate with respect
to the motor speeds.

 During this process sugarcane will be supplied to the cutting blade such that nodes will come in
between those parallel blades.

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 After cutting sugarcane nodes are stored in a container placed below the table.

 Similar to nodes, intermediate nodes will also stored in another container which in front of the
motor.

 UV light present beside the blade will kill the bacteria’s present in the node.

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CHAPTER 4
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

4.1 ADVANTAGES

● Maintenance cost is less.

● Less time consuming.
● Easy process.
● Mass production rate.
● Floor space for machine is very less.
● Farming land can be used very efficiently.
● No wastage of sugarcane.
● Disease can be found.

4.2 DISADVANTAGES

● Manpower is required.
● Very high RPM is required.
● Thin blades are required.
● Continues supply is required

4.3 APPLICATION

This sugarcane node cutter machine will be used only to cut sugarcane nodes very efficiently.

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CHAPTER 5
RESULT AND CONCLUSION

5.1 CONCLUSION
To reduce the human effort required for sugarcane planting by developing automated sugarcane
node cutting machine.
To develop machine which have proper control on cutting location so cut cannot appear on node
and cut maximum nodes at minimum time so efficiency will be increased.
UV rays will be used to treat the infected sugarcane.
Required human efforts for cutting node will be reduced.
Maximum nodes will be cut at minimum time so efficiency will be increased.

Production of minimum of 1 lakhs nodes per day.

Farmer can overcome the labor crises problem.

5.2 FUTURE WORK

In recent years, agriculture has become less popular. Hence, the lands acquired by farmers are
more and implement large scale cultivation. Hence, to manage and tend the farms labour
required will increase, thus opening a market for automation based equipment for farming. This
computer vision based machine will automate the basic task of cutting the sugarcane bud which
is used for plantation of sugarcane. In the coming years, the product will get popular along with
other products which will modernize the agriculture.
After the completions of this project, following conclusions were made, i.e, the automated
sugarcane bud chipping machine is fabricated and assembled as per the proposed design. This
machine cut the node automatically so the newly developed machine is more effective for
sugarcane planting

1. In order to improve the quality of sugarcane seed and the efficiency of seed cutting, it needs
to develop a kind of seed cutting technology and equipment that does not harm the seed buds.
2. As a future development, machine vision and image processing techniques can be used to
identify sugarcane stem nodes and avoid stem nodes when cutting seeds.

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CHAPTER 06
REFERENCE

● R. Yadav, S. Yadav, R.K. Tejra, “Labour saving and cost reduction machinery for
sugarcane cultivation” Sugar Tech., 5 (1–2) (2003), pp. 7-10.

● S.K. Mandal, P.K. Maji, “Design refinement of 2 row tractor mounted sugarcane cutter
planter. CIGR J. Agric. Eng. Int. (2008), pp. 1-8

● A.K. Singh, P.R. Singh, “Development of a tractor operated sugarcane cutter planter
for mechanisation of sugarcane planting in deep furrows” Sugar Tech., 19 (4) (2016),
pp. 416-423

● A. Patil, A. Dave, R. Yadav, “Evaluation of sugarcane cutter planter” Sugar

Tech., 6 (3) (2004), pp. 121-125

● M. Kumar, B. Dogra, G.S. Sanghera, et al. Modification and evaluation of

commercially available sugarcane trench planter for its application under Punjab
conditions Sugar Tech., 21 (4) (2019), pp. 586-595.

● J. Han, S. Wen, Q. Liu, et al.Design and test of pre-cutting type sugarcane planter J.
South China Agric. Univ., 40 (4) (2019), pp. 109-118

● M. Namjoo, J. Razavi, “Development and evaluation of a new double-row sugarcane

billet planter with overlap planting pattern” AMA-Agric. Mech. Asia Afr. Lat.
A, 45 (2) (2014), pp. 57-64

● R.D. Pistulkar, N.S. Nehrotra, P.S. SontakkeDesign and fabrication of human powered
bicycle operated sugarcane bud cutting machine” Int. J. Innov. Res.
Technol., 6 (4) (2017), pp. 185-189

● G. Ragupathi, A.R. Kumar, V.S. Prakash, et al.Design and fabrication of pneumatic

sugarcane bud cutting machine” Int. J. Adv. Sci. Eng. Res., 2 (2017), pp. 413-421

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● N. Dileepan, G. Sivakumar, V. Sathishkumar, et al.Sugarcane bud chipper with multi

cutter using slider crank mechanism” Int. J., 5 (2018), pp. 6-11

● Joby Bastial, B. Shridher, “Investigation of mechanical properties of sugarcane stalks for

department of a whole cane combine harvester”, Indian Journal of Applied Research,
Volume 4, Issue 9 September 2014, ISSN -2449-555X

● K. Moshashai, M. Almosi, “ Identification of sugarcane podes using image processing

and machine vision technology”, Interntional Journal of Aggricultural Research, Volume
3, Issue 2008, ISSN-1816-4897.

● ]Ningappa H.Keuri, Prof. Reddy Naik J. “Design Development of Sugarcane Bud

Chipping Machine”, International Journal of Research in Aeronautical, And Mechanical
Engineering, Volume 3, Issue 12 December 2015, ISSN-2321-3051

● Abel Roy , Gat Vaibhav , Patil Harshavardhan ,Upadhye Dhiraj, “Design and Fabrication
of Semi-automated Sugarcane Bud Chipper”, Institute for Studies on Recent Advances in
Science And Engineering, Volume 3, Issue 30 April 2016

● K.Moshahai, M. Almasi, S. Minaei and A.M. Borghei, “Identification of Sugarcane

Nodes Using Image Processing & Machine Vision Technology.” , International Journal
of Agricultural Research, 2008

● ] IEEE Xplore Digital Library, “Application of Image Processing Techniques in the

Characterization of Plant Leafs”, Publisher: IEEE Industrial Electronics Conference,
2003.

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