Analysis Of Design Of An Intervention Oil Palm Sickle
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Date
2022-06-24
Authors
Awang Mansor, Muhammad Adib Haikal
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
One of the major activities in an oil palm plantation is oil palm harvesting,
which demands a lot of energy, especially when cutting the oil palm fronds. Since the
beginning of oil palm cultivation in Malaysia, attempts have been made to develop
better cutting equipment. Most of the cutting tools developers claimed that the built
cutting tools can help to reduce the burden on the harvester, however not all the claims
are supported with any data and research. ‘Pelajak’ is a device produced by a company,
Teras Tegap Agrotech Sdn. Bhd. (TTASB). This cutting tool provided some clearance
between the sickle and the pole, which increased momentum when the harvesters
applied a pull cutting force. In this experiment, there are four main objectives of the
research. The first objective is to study the effects of the cutting process on the sickle
sharpness. Next, to perform the static force test on intervention ‘Pelajak’ sickle and
study the effects of frond angle on various parameters. The third one is to investigate
the amplification of force by intervention ‘Pelajak’ sickle relative to a conventional
sickle. Finally, this project aims to conduct parametric study and study the effects of
clearance on intervention ‘Pelajak’ sickle in the force produced. The experiment
conducted revealed that the sickle reduced by 44% in sharpness after 12 cutting process
and the percentage becomes higher when only the area of sickle that is mostly involves
in cutting process is considered at 132% of reduction. The frond angle also affects the
cutting area, maximum cutting force required, and the time taken to cut a frond while
it does not affect the work done on cutting the frond. The third experiment found that
the intervention ‘Pelajak’ sickle amplified 77% of force compared to a conventional
sickle. On the field test however, the data show only an increase of 23% on force for
the intervention ‘Pelajak’ sickle relative to the conventional sickle. Both results still
show a statistically significant difference between the force produce and the sickle used.
The final test revealed that the clearance on the ‘Pelajak’ sickle does affect the force
produce. The value of force decreases as the clearance is reduce.