Modification of Branch Shredding Machine and Determination of Some Operational Values for Vineyard Pruning Residues

Abstract

This study was carried out in June 2023 in the vineyard of a producer with a modern wire finishing system and traditional spreading system in Dicle district of Diyarbakır province. Pruning residues of Boğazkere (wine grapes), Öküzgözü (wine grapes) and Mazurmi (Şire) grape (Vitis vinifera L.) varieties were used as plant material in the research. In this study conducted to evaluate vineyard pruning residues and solve ongoing problems; The study was carried out at three different chopper blade speeds (1500 min^-1, 2000 min^-1 and 2500 min^-1) and feeding amounts, using two, three and four chopper blades on a machine produced for branch shredding. The effects of the number of chopper blades, chopper blade speed and feeding amount on fuel consumption, power consumption, engine noise and grain sizes were determined for three grape varieties. According to the results of the study, the highest fuel consumption was obtained in Mazurmi (Şire) grape variety as 1.260 l h^-1 (1.685 kg h^-1), while Boğazkere 1.075 l h^-1 (1.439 kg h^-1) and Öküzgözü 1.088 l h^-1 (1,454 kg h^-1) was the same in all varieties.While the effect of the number of chopper blades on fuel consumption was found to be statistically insignificant, the effect of the speed of the chopper blades on fuel consumption values was found to be statistically significant (p<0.001). These values were found to be 0.987 l/h at 1500 min^-1, 1.332 l h^-1 at 2000 min^-1 and 1.303 l h^-1 at 2500 min^-1, respectively. For all three types, there was a significant reduction in particle sizes due to the increase in the number of blades and speed. There was an approximately two-fold reduction in size between the double blade and the quadruple blade. A high fragmentation rate of over 50 % was obtained when the smallest particle size was chopped with a four-blade chopper at 2500 rpm.