High-tech comes to cleaners
High-tech comes to cleaners
Sugar beet cleaning is set to go high-tech as electronics offer a way to separate clods as well as stones from beet. Peter Hill reports
BRITISH Sugars emphasis on the need to reduce tare in beet consignments has done much to advance the design of cleaner-loaders.
From a basic configuration using rod link traces and Continental webs that remained unchanged for years, manufacturers are now installing rotary brushes, steel spiral rollers and flexible plastic star rollers to improve separation of clods, loose soil and stones from the crop. Now, electronics are set to play their part.
At this years Beet UK event, CTM Harpley Engineering will unveil the prototype of its electronic sensing and separation system, which not only distinguishes stones within the flow of material but clods too.
"Having identified the location of stones and clods on the cleaning web, we then have a means of deflecting them away from the crop," explains CTMs Nigel Mountain.
The technology involved and its application on a sugar beet cleaner-loader has been developed in conjunction with Anglia Polytechnic University, with funding support from the governments Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) "Smart" scheme.
CTM is also introducing a larger cleaner-loader equipped with the spiral rollers first seen on the 180t/hour 500-series version available commercially for the first time this autumn. The 9000-series loader, with up to 250t/hour capacity, is aimed at big growers and contractors.
Like its smaller brother, the newcomer has lengthwise steel rollers with a spiral profile fitted between the Continental web pre-cleaner and the elevator. CTM says the roller assembly has a unique anti-jamming design.
"These systems usually have automatic reversing to release any brick or stone blocking the rollers but these do not necessarily get rid of the offending items," notes Nigel Mountain. "With our design, the rollers do not reverse; instead, each contra-rotating pair can move apart by more than 70mm to get rid of whatever is causing the blockage."
The latest Thyregod cleaner-loader (now sold in Britain by Kongskilde) also uses cleaning rollers to reduce tare; in fact it can have two sets. The 250t/hour-plus Thyregod TR7 has a long 10cu m capacity hopper with a conventional trace in the bottom conveying crop to the first set of eight steel and rubber rollers.
Spiral profiles on the steel rollers clean and convey the beet which then turn left to pass over a set of six such rollers (or a plain web) before heading up the slewing elevator which is long enough to load over a hedge.
The hydraulically-driven rollers have auto reversing and move apart a touch to get rid of stones or other items threatening the block the system.
Potato cleaning technology, in the shape of several rollers formed from flexible plastic "stars", is borrowed for the JE900 cleaner-loader from Jones Engineering.
Says Stephen Jones: "Star rollers have proved themselves as being effective on potato harvesters and graders taking out loose soil and stones. But they also work well on beet and are gentle too."
Seven star rollers are used on the bigger Loadmaster models which have been joined by the JE900 for smaller growers. In addition to the star rollers, this model has a four-place picking section for manual removal of frosted or diseased beet.
Hand picking combined with conventional rod link traces and Continental webs is the route favoured by Armer Machinery, which has developed its range to include two picking table models with all hydraulic drive.
"Hydraulic drive with independent control of each section at the picking table allows the operators to fine tune each section to give the best cleaning performance and output," says Stephen Twist.
The smaller of the two machines working at Beet UK – the HD115CLS – has a two-man picking area at the bottom of the elevator. The HD125CLS allows more intensive picking by up to four people using a table section inserted between the intake hopper and elevator.
Both machines have 1m wide cleaning elements (up from the 91cm of previous models), and there is more clearance for shifting soil and debris with large loader or telehandler buckets.