Influence of cutting angle and harvesting speed on damage caused by harvester knives in sugarcane cultivation

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the damage caused during the basal cut of sugarcane, changing the operative characteristics, such as the displacement speed during the operation and the attack angle of the base cut in the laboratory, using DECCA (Sugarcane Basal Cut Test). Device, developed by the NEMPA equipment (Agroforestry Machines and Tires Testing Nucleus) for use in the laboratory, which maps the action of the base cutter on the tops of the crop. The research sample was formed from a total of 432 observations that refer to 9 combinations of three displacement speeds of the device (3, 5 and 7 km h-1) and three base cutting angles of attack (12°, 15 ° and 18 °), and for each combination, 48 units of study were collected and analyzed (3x3x48 = 432 observations) duly classified qualitatively based on the methodology proposed by Toledo (2012). The procedures and analysis carried out in this investigation detected the presence of evidence on the influence of these combinations on the number of occurrences of extreme damage caused to the tocons. The isolated analysis of each one of these variables indicated that the displacement speed is not statistically significant and, on the other hand, it was observed that the angle used for the cut could influence the damage in the cuestion.