Power Requirement and Fuel Consumption Reduction of Forage Harvester Chopper Blades by Thermal Coating

The objective of this study wasto scrutinize the improvement of cutting efficiency of chopper blades used in forage harvesters and to determine the change in energy consumption by this means. The chopper blades used conventionally were coated thermally with two type coating powder alloys in the study. The coated blades and conventional ones were used on the same machine during all harvest season. Power requirement and fuel consumption of the harvest machine during harvesting were determined separately by using conventional and coated blades. It was determined that the blades coated with WC-Ni- Cr-Co-B-Si powder alloy (WC+Co) generated high rate of energy saving in comparison to both conventional blades and other coated blades. It was determined that conventional blades have higher fuel consumption than the coated blades. The fuel consumption of WC+Co powder alloy coated blades was approximately 22.5% lower than that of conventional blade. This difference increased as the harvested area increased. The fuel consumption difference between conventional blade and WC+Co powder alloy coated blades reached 3.89 Lh(-1) (40.65%) when the harvested area reached 3 ha.