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Innovative Hay and Straw Cleaner for mobile cleaning on the field
The innovative Hay and Straw Cleaner, being the first mobile machine, now provides a facility to de-dust feed and litter on the field itself. It picks up the swath and the accelerator distributes the material evenly on the cleaning surface, where it falls on an air cushion. From there, it is carried by several screw conveyors and through air over several drop screens. At the same time, a strong air stream blows out the dust. The maximum dust removal is ensured thanks to a specially designed swath former consisting of a two-part comb, which separates the material from the air stream and allows the dust-borne air through. An innovative dust conduction system carries the blown dust downward through a cover so that hardly any of it drops on the swath. The heavier foreign particles such as sand, broken grains or weed seeds are separated by the drop sieves.
Having been subjected to a process of continual optimisation over several years of development in field tests, the machine concept enables powerful and efficient cleaning of large volumes of material. The results of initial field trials, conducted in cooperation with the NRW Chamber of Agriculture showed promising results.
The compact trailed machine has a pickup of 2.50 metres width, so that even broad swaths can be picked up. A tractor of 50 kW or more is required for operation. The machine was successfully used in field trials for straw for cleaning large swaths from cutting units of up to nine metres. The power requirement is around 30 kW and – depending on the cleaning intensity and amount of material – currently allows travel speeds of 6.5 to 9 kilometres per hour.
Thanks to its practical, simple, and extremely robust design with very strong components, the Hay and Straw Field Cleaner is also impressive in its high operational reliability and easy maintenance. Instead of the chain drives that were used in the first prototypes, the machine now uses simple, solid V-belts, which make it particularly low-wear and low-maintenance. Clamping elements specially designed for this use ensure additional usage safety in the field.
