Combine turbo boosts efficiency
An Australian company has introduced a new combine option via a new Saskatchewan company.
Developed in Australia, the Grain Turbo has been sold there for three years.
Today, 250 of the units are in use there and reports by Australian agricultural engineering firms have been positive.
Grain Turbo forces a stream of high velocity, low volume air in the space between the concave and sieves, separating chaff and small straw from the grain. Pre-cleaning the grain this way reduces the screenings load on the sieves and helps keep the surface of the concave clean, open to grain and chaff.
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The lighter material is carried farther back in the machine, allowing the sieves to be opened wider than normal and enabling more grain to fall through. Reduced need for reprocessing should limit cracking in cereals and peas.
“The greatest benefit would be for combines with straight cut headers taking smaller amounts of straw,” said Brent Senger, a Bradwell, Sask. farmer and director of Grain Turbo of Canada. Senger is importing 10 of the units for use on John Deere 7720 and 8820 machines this year.
“In years where you need to process a lot of straw or in damp conditions the full benefit will not be realized, but under any conditions a better sample and more productivity will be made.”
Air is pressurized by a fan driven off a main shaft on the combine. Drawing 10 horsepower, the fan is coarse enough not to plug with dust and straw.
The concept of pre-cleaning above the sieves is not new. Gleaner-Baldwin introduced air to their systems as far back as 1927 and now uses a lower powered version on the Gleaner R and L series. John Deere also uses air forced from the lower fan housing to create a cleaning flow above the sieves on its 9000 series machines.
Tests look good
The Kondinin Group of South Australia, an agriculture engineering firm, in independent tests of the Grain Turbo found capacity increased as much as one third with the unit installed on a New Holland TR86 rotary combine. A 10 percent increase was observed on a John Deere 8820 conventional machine. The company noted damp conditions with downed crop were encountered during testing and felt the Grain Turbo had more potential under dryer conditions.
For more information contact: Brent Senger, Bradwell, Sask., 306-257-3776.
