Increase the cutting efficiency of chopper blades of corn harvesting machine for silage by using thermal spray coating

In this thesis, cutting surface of chopper blades of single row silage corn harvester machine which are used widely in our country, were coated by thermal spray method with special metal powder mixture and the changes in the blades cutting efficiency and cutting quality were studied. Besides, by extending blunt time on cutting edge, fuel saving and protection of long time cutting quality is aimed. At this study, three blade types were tested by using single row silage corn harvester. These are called; Original Blade (S), Coating (A) Blade and Coating (B) Blade. WC based powder alloys are used as main coating. The content of the Coating (A) blade is; WC-Ni-Cr-Co-B-Si powder alloy, the content of the Coating (B) Blade is; WC-Ni-Cr-B-Si powder alloy. There is no process on the Original Blade. Corn harvested by using all three blades. At the end of the 30 da harvesting, average hourly fuel consumption is 5.66 Lh-1 for blade A, 7.07 Lh-1 for blade B and it is measured 7.31 Lh-1 for blade S. During 30 da harvesting, average power requirements of blades are; 21.9 kW for blade A, 23.5 kW for blade B and 25.8 kW for blade S. The blade S has higher power consumption than blades A and B. The average power requirement and fuel consumption of blade (A) is seen to be clearly different (lower) from other two (B-S) blades. Target chopper length of the crop provided by blade A with 91.8% rate. Keywords: Harvesting machine, Powder coating, Fuel consumption, Silage, Chopper blade