WO2021048873A1

WO2021048873A1 - Chopper for cutting nubile sugarless tops and leaves in sugar cane harvester using hydraulic knife

Info

Publication number: WO2021048873A1
Application number: PCT/IN2020/050783
Authority: WO
Inventors: Niteen KUMBHOJKAR
Original assignee: Kumbhojkar Niteen
Priority date: 2019-09-10
Filing date: 2020-09-09
Publication date: 2021-03-18

Abstract

The invention Chopper for cutting nubile sugarless Tops and leaves in Sugar cane harvester with hydraulic knife is a selective chopper that only cuts the soft nubile stems (Tops) without disturbing the stem. Small segments of many knives in a pair on a periphery of two interlocked Rollers pair are arranged to form a scissor action to cut the soft stems. Where as the hard cane press the knife to retract without cutting the hard cane, This is achieved by applying an adjustable hydraulic force. The setting of the pressure is visible on the scale of the piston so as to preset for the species of the cane under harvester. The segments arranged in staggered manner so as to distribute the cutting torque equally along the whole rotation. Using these chopper rollers the harvester would stop wasting energy on blower extractor and the trash would be made available as fodder.

Description

Chopper for cutting nubile sugarless Tops and leaves in Sugar cane harvester with hydraulic knife.

3] Field Of Invention

This invention relates to the Harvesting machines for crops similar to Sugar cane and Sorghum kind of stalk like crops and more particularly it is related to the mechanism for the extraction and removal of the all the trash of leaves , grass, nubile stems -tops from the stem . Further this invention reduces the power consumption of the harvester, for the trash extraction, eliminating the need of Blower, and also eliminates the need of chopping of cane to billets for harvesting.

4 ] Prior Art and problems to be solved:

The harvesters for the Sugar cane type of crops is in existence from very long time. But none of the machines have capability to remove the nubile stems, (the soft greenish, sugarless portion of the stem... called TOPS)

Sugar cane plant has four major organs. First part is below the soil, it is the roots and ratoons . Above the Ground is the stalk of the stems. This has three parts. First , main stalk like stem, made of many segments of long fiber cells having sugar, hard, and long (about 4 to 5 m) , ( refer figure 1, number 1 is the cane stem . Number 2 shows the leaves and Number 7 shows the TOPS). At the top of the plant (shown as the last part of cane stem passing - by #7, ). The soft top part of the stem in nubile condition, soft greenish, and long about 0.6 to 1 m, does not have Sugar. As such it is trash for the sugar production. But it is good animal food. . On the sides of the stem there are long leaves. (Shown by number 2) it is. 1-2 m long. The top portion of stem has firmly attached green leaves. While the lower stems have dried brown leaves. These leaves + tops - form the trash. They are about 15 to 18 percent of the weight of the good crop by weight

When the harvesting is done by hands, the workers remove the tops and use them for animal fodders. This manual harvesting is clean and free from trash, but the process is very laborious and in-human. Day by day the humans are avoiding the manual harvesting and there is an acute shortage of humans who are ready to do it. As such using the Machine harvesting is the need of time.

But in machine harvesting, there are many disadvantages. The Cost and Quality both are not at par to the manual harvesting.

The trash removing technology is primitive.

Machine harvested Cane billets, contain 15 to 18% trash of leaves and chopped tops of sugarless cane. This is the biggest disadvantage, solved by this invention.

In the most used harvesting machines, the whole cane and the leaves are chopped to small billets, so that most leaves get separated from the stem. And then they are exposed to a strong wind streams created by a very strong blower. The suction side of the Blower is exposed to the cane to suck the trash. This is only and partly effective to extract cut part of the light trash like leaves. The tops are having almost equal density to that of the matured cane, the tops can never be extracted by this technique.

The current machines system is shown in figure 1. The base cutter (#6) cuts the stem from floor. Then the train of few Rollers pull the cut whole long cane to force in to the last pair of the chopping rollers (#18) The leaves , stem and tops, trapped by a rotary chopping rollers (18 in Fig. 1) with two or three knifes ( #17) . The cane get cut in such a pair of rollers in to small billets (shown as number 20 in Fig 1) . This, also cutting the leaves and tops to small pieces. Then this whole bunch of billets, mixed with the chopped leaves and tops, are thrown under the suction of the blower, the air streams of this blower carries the light trash away to the exhaust. In real fact, there are two defects in this technique. First: These air streams cannot separate the nubile cane shoots from the sugar cane billets, because they are almost the same weight. Second: for the leaves, too, it is ineffective due to leaves travel under the “shadow “of the cane billets. After chopping cane and leaves, when thrown upward, the trash of leaves being light, remains at lower trajectory than the heavier billets and shoots-Tops. So that the air streams force most of the leaves to stuck beneath the cane billets and do not get extracted.

These TOPS alone, form around 10 - 15% of the harvested crop. So the customer, the sugar mills are forced to buy these 15% trash at the cost of sugar cane. Which is a major loss for sugar mills .. There need to be a technology that can eliminate this problem to extract all the leaves as well as the heavy nubile cane tops

The blower is waste of energy .. very small portion is utilised for the extraction work. As such the power consumption for this existing technology is very high . There is a need of a power efficient technology for extraction of leaves and the nubile tops.

The Tops and leaves are very healthy food for animals. Unlike the manual harvesting the existing machines does not offer this portion of the crop for animal food. Instead it is spread on the farm. Many times, that trash becomes a food for insects, fungus that damage the valuable ratoons below the ground. There is a need of a technology to collect this trash to offer to the animal as the food.

5] OBJECTS of this inventions

The principle object of this invention is to extract the trash of nubile portion of the top stem of sugar cane that does not have sugar (cane tops) and also to remove/ extract, the trash of leaves, from the sugar cane harvested by machine harvester.

The further object of the said invention is to reduce the energy consumption of the extraction of trash , and the machine harvesting .

Yet another objective of this invention is to collect the extracted trash for utilizing as fodder or for any commercial use.

The another objective of the said invention to provide adjustable system parameters to adopt for various genes of crop with variable level of softness. 6] SUMMERY of the invention (NOVELTY)

This invention enable the sugar cane harvesting machine to selectively cut the soft , sugarless portion of the stem only, without affecting the grown main crop cane.

It has been discovered through few measurements that the force required to cut the grown cane is more than double the force required to cut the nubile shoots / green Tops .

These two facts are innovatively employed by using hydraulic system, that exerts a precise stable, and finitely adjustable, delicate hydraulic force on (several) small axial segments of knifes mounted on the small pistons sliding radially. All such small knife pistons are connected to one central & axial cylinder cavity exerting pressure on a large piston compressed by a large spring. The variation of oil volume due to sliding of the knife pistons is absorbed by the large spring , making the variation in pressure very negligible.

Further the large pistons position indicates the pressure of the system, precisely, rigidly, acting as a pressure gauge.

So the central system pressure, and subsequently, the force on the chopping knifes, can be adjusted precisely, delicately, and can be precisely measured to achieve a delicately precise knifing force that allows chopping of only the unwanted soft, sugarless tops without affecting the sweet cane.

These set of pair of chopping rollers are fitted just before the final exit rollers and after all the pulling rollers that imparts sufficient motion to the cane stocks. While the hard stem comes under the blade , the small hydraulic force can not cut the hard cane, but very effective for forming a GRIP on the cane , required for effective pulling of the long large cane stem .. which is very effective productivity enhancer.

The rollers cut chop the trash before the cane is leaving the roller train so that the trash remains inside the machine and that can be offered as food for the animals.

These top choppers, remove the trash completely before the cane pass ahead, which means that the Blower Extractor and Chopper , both become useless. That is about 60% of the total power .. The machine users can even use a cheaper alternative for whole cane bundling and loading. Saving cost on Elevator + Infielder 7] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

This invention, the Chopper for cutting nubile soft sugarless stems from top of the sugar cane and leaves in Sugar cane harvester with adjustable hydraulic force is illustrated in the accompanying eight drawings . Throughout this illustration, the appropriate numerals shown in the drawings, are referred by number to indicate the appropriate part under illustration. If one part is used at many places and functions, then all those parts are given same first two digit , followed by decimal point and a digit showing the location or function. For example, there are 30 knifes, all are numbered 29.n.n or only 29 . Here referring only 29 means description applying to all knifes. While 29.2.1 means description specifically apply to the knife only in the Block segment number 2 ( out off 4 blocks) and only at angular position 1 (out off the three positions at 120° apart.)

“U” suffix is added to indicate the use in Upper Roller body assembly, {10}

A pair of these TOPS Chopping Roller (#28L &28U) can be installed in the conventional harvester roller train in between the last pair of pull rollers (9-10)

, before the last final pair of chopper rollers (18) . as shown in the figure 1.

As these two rollers rotate in opposite directions. They carry out following functions.

1} Pull the full grown cane to push to the next pair of rollers and

2} Cut the trash of leaves, in small pieces, so they fall down in the chamber

3} Scrape the stem to cut off the connection of the leaves from the stem 4} Cut the tops ( the nubile cane stems at the top ) shown by 7 in fig. 5 but not to cut the hard cane (1) {12}

The figure 2 and 3 gives a overall view of the invention. While Figure 1 shows how the invention can be used on the present harvesting machine. {14}

The invention mainly consists of Two Rollers bodies (28) , one Gear Box on one side (27) , and one bearing housing plate on the other side that fits the chopper on the frame of the harvester.

The location of the invention, Tops chopper , is shown in the figure 1, as in between the pulling Rollers, Last chopper Roller. As in the figure 1 , after the cane is cut by the base cutter (6) the but lift roller (8) throws the base of the stem into the pair of pulling rollers ( 9 and 10) . They keep pulling the cane till the top pass through and feed the cane in to the Rollers 28 &28 U of the Tops Chopper {16}

While the cane stalk easily pass through the rollers unharmed, the soft tops get chopped by the knifes, in to small pieces. The knifes (29) cuts the tops and the cut piece of the nubile sugarless stem falls in the chamber. Thus the Clean cane is separated from trash, at the same time the cut trash remains in the possession of the machine, making the trash available for using as animal food {18}

It has been observed by us in various measurement experiments that for softest cane species, 80032 , the force required on a sharp knife, to cut the nubile soft sugarless cane is 40 to 45% of the force required to cut the grown up sweet cane. While it was observed that for the other hard species like 10001 and 8005 this ratio is 30% . .. This fact is innovatively, used to cut only the soft sugarless stem, by controlling the cutting force on the knife, keeping it high enough to cut the nubile cane but too low so as not to cut the grown sweet hard cane {20}

To achieve this, the chopping blades (29.n.n in Fig.5 , 2 ,3 &6) are attached to an hydraulic piston ( knife piston) (61. n in the Figure 5 &6) . The piston (61 ) attached with the knife (29.n.n ) slides inside the hydraulic cylinder cavities (62. N ref Fig. 2, 5&6) cut inside the Roller body (28. N) in the style shown in Figure 5 and 2 . The hydraulic pressure multiplied by area of the knife piston (61. N), decides the force exerted on the chopping knife . This pressure (P) is increased by adding more oil in the central cavity (64 of Fig 6) through the inlet port cut in the ‘inlet cover (40 in Fig 4 &2 ) connected to the hole and passage (47 in Fig. 4) cut in ‘the Screw Piston Rod (43 in Fig. 4&2). {22}

If the pressure is less, than the required for cutting the hard sweet cane, the piston slides Radially inside (retraction), and the knife retracts (as shown in the Figure 7, as the knife at 0°, at position 29.4.1.R ) , to create only a strong grip but no piercing . The pressure on the piston by the oil is set high enough to cut the sugarless soft stem. In that case , when the nubile, sugarless top stem enters in the rollers, the knife remains out and pierce in the stem to form a through cut, thus Chopping off and separating the Tops from the main sweet cane {24}

While the two Rollers of the pair of the Tops Chopper are rotated in opposite directions, (as shown in the figure 5 ) The two paired knifes ( One on the lower and the other on the upper roller ) start touching the cane passing through, at Approximately , 30 degrees before the peak position (Peak position is there where the two knifes of a pair, are touching each other- shown by position of 29.4.1 in Fig. 5) , The position of the knife at 29.2.1 (&U) is approximately at -30° to the position at 29.4.1 . The knifes in the row 29.4.1 ( on lower Roller body) and 29.4.1 U ( on upper roller Body) form one such pair of rows of knifes . Each Roller is divided in four blocks as shown in Figure 2 and 3 by 28.1 to 28.4 . On each of the 4 blocks , there are three rows of knifes (designated as 29.N.1 to 29. N.3 , where N is 1 to 4, indicating the block number - 29 is for knife. Same is true about block numbers, 28.1 to 28.4 , where 28 is for Roller body , 1to4 indicates the block number). Each of these 12 pairs of Rows, ( 29.1.1 to 29.4.3 ) reach this position to touch each other, one row after other, within same interval of 30°. At this position of 0°, their touching instance complete the chopping action, causing a complete cut (through n through) only of the soft , nubile sugarless top stem . In one Rotation of the roller, three chopping events are executed on one cane. Maximum 3 canes tops are cut at one time, where as the current machine is forced to cut as high as 12 canes at the same time. {26}

The Pistons (and the cylinder bores) are shifted away from radial line , as shown in figure 5 , so that at the time the knife touch the cane, the Axis of both the piston would be parallel to each other and perpendicular to the cane diameter. This ensures the entire piston force to act for piercing without any vector acting tangentially. This is important for delicate cutting, and allows to set the pressure to the minimum possible value.. {28}

When there is a soft stem, between the knife pair, the knifes pierce and move the cane forward. But if the cane is hard, then the knife (29) start retracting, causing the piston (61) to travel in, thus displacing the oil in side to the central cylinder cavity (64). as shown in the Figure 7 for the knifes at 29.4.1 . So Knife rotating from position at29.2.1 to 29.4.1, i.e from -30 ° to 0° - the oil is pumped inside . If space is not provided to this pumped in oil then this would increase the oil pressure. Increasing the pressure is going to damage the cane, so it is harmful. So it is important that the oil displace some other pistons outward. To avoid this, provision is made that causes a displacement of other piston outward. To achieve this , the next knife set is positioned at angular shift of 30° (at 29.4.1 ) , so that as the 29.4.1 knife travel next 30° (from 0 ° to +30 °)

, the blade& piston keeps coming out, thus accommodating oil pumped by the piston sliding inside ( 29.2.1 to 29.4.1 position shown in the figure 5) . The diameter of the Rollers is selected such a way that the angle for which the Knife remain in contact with the cane is adjusted to about 60°. And as such the angle between two sets of knifes is set to 30°. So it can be seen that at any moment of time, one set of knife piston is sliding in (throwing oil in to the center) while exactly one set of knife pistons are sliding outside ( taking in the oil from the centre) . This is the way the sliding of the knife piston does not affect a change in system pressure. {30}

All these cylinder cavities, 62.1 , to 62.3, (Fig. 5 ,6 & 2) are connected through axial holes, 63.1 to 63.3 and the axial slots, 65.1 to 65.3 , that connects to central cylinder cavity 64 ( also see the Figure 6 ) . Thus, all the knife piston cylinders are connected to each other and finally to the central cavity 64 ( see Figure 4) . {32}

A tubular piston, (42 with seals 49&50 in Fig. 4 &2 ) is sliding in an annular gap between the inner Diameter of the Flanged axle (39 ) and the outer diameter of screw piston Rod (43). This hydraulic piston, 42, is exposed to the oil in the central cavity (64) , exerting huge force which is balanced by the compression of the spring (38) . This makes the tubular piston to remain floating between the force of oil pressure and the force of the compression of the spring (38) . Higher the pressure, higher will be the compression of the spring ( 38).

Further, it is seen in the same figure , 4, that the spring piston rod (41) tied to the tube piston piston (42) by screw and nuts, is coming outside of the complete roller chopper assembly as shown in the Figure 4 and 2. Area of this rod, shown by 48 in Figure 4, has graduation markings to show the pressure of the system. The Rod, 41, connected to the floating piston, 42, will take a position depending on the pressure of the oil in the cavity (64) . So the gauge rod (41) with the calibration lines at place shown by 48 in figure 4, is accurate measure of the system pressure. {34}

The tubular piston (42) has an extended perforated, tubular, portion inside the cavity 64. So as the spring (38) fits inside this extended tube. This spring (38) exerts the said balancing force on the piston, (42) that compensate the force due to the pressure of the system oil. So, as the spring compression force comes from the oil pressure on the annular area between the piston seals, fitted on the piston as piston seal (49) and rod seal (50) respectively. For the aim to measure the oil pressure by reading the lines coming out, on the piston rod gauge, with fair accuracy, it is required that we should use a least stiff spring, but that exerts enough force to balance the oil pressure force, which equals the pressure multiplied by the annular area of the piston (42) between the seals (49 & 50) . At the same time the spring must have sensitive stiffness, to cause enough displacement by change of small pressure of the oil. to use the fairly optimal stiff spring, the spring piston is made tubular and thus , the effective area of the ‘spring piston’ , exposed to oil pressure is reduced. Subsequently reducing the maximum force on the spring due to the oil pressure, allowing to use a fairly sensitive spring that compress longer length by a smaller pressure increase. This is how the least count of the pressure measurement is reduced.

{36}

The cavity at center (64) is connected by holes (47) in the screw piston rod (43)

The Screw Piston Rod, 43, is a rotating part, rotates with the roller body 28, inside the stationary inlet cover (40). The seals 44 and 46 Seal the oil in the holes and the groove (45) cut in the ‘screw Piston Rod , between the two seals. An inlet port is cut on the periphery of the inlet cover (40) that connects to the groove cut on the periphery of the rotating part , piston rod Screw (43) . So as additional oil is forced in through the inlet port the spring gets compressed , and causes displacement of the gauge rod (41 ) Same way oil going out from the inlet passage will reduce the system pressure . This way the pressure is precisely set . and feed back on the pressure value is precisely visible at the marking (48) on the spring piston rod gauge (41)

{38}

The two rollers , upper and lower , need to rotate in synchronized, interlocked condition, so that the two knifes of one pair , one in the upper and the other in the lower Roller body, touch each other at every rotation, at the same time instance , at the position shown by 29.4.1 in Fig 5 . To achieve this , each of the two rollers are connected by a spur/helical gears (24 &24U) of same diameter and same number of teeth. See the figure 6 . The motor (22) Drives the Flange Axle ( 23) through splines . This Flanged axle is supported by taper roller bearings (25 & 26 ) . The outer rings of the two bearings are fixed in the hubs of the gear box housing (27) and the gear box cover (21) , respectively , facing opposite to each other. The tightening of taper roller bearing is done through lock washer, a ring washer (containing hydraulic seals), by a lock nut riding on the threads of the small end of the Flanged axle (23). So the Gear box side forms a complete cantilever holding of the Roller in one set of two pre- loaded taper Roller bearings. {40} F rom the other end of roller , the support is given by another T aper roller bearing (52 of figure 4), riding on the flanged axle-Rear (39) and inside the hub of the rear bearing housing plate (36) . The clearance for this bearing is adjusted through the Lock washer by a lock Nut (53) tightened on the threads on the small end of flanged axle rear (39) of rear bearing housing plate ( 36) .

{42}

Again refer the Figure 6 for understanding the synchronous running of the two roller. The gear (24) is bolted to the Flange axle (23). So the motor (22) drives the lower gear through the internal splines in the Flanged axle (23) . Oil is filled inside the gear box. The sealing is achieved by rotary seal (30) fitted in the Gear box housing (27) . This seal is sealing on the large diameter of the Flange axle (23) {44}

Upper gear ( 24U) is engaged with the lower gear (directly driven by the motor ) . The upper roller has the same arrangement as of the lower roller, except that the lower roller has the motor driving it. So the upper gear (24U) is bolted to the upper flange axle (23U) which is bolted to the upper roller body 28U. So the motion of the two rollers is synchronized for the life {46}

Referring to the Figure 6 it can be understood, how all the knife piston cylinder cavities (62. n) in which the Knife piston (61) slides, are connected to the central cavity of the spring piston cylinder (64) ... Through the axial hole , 3 in 360° at 120°apart, (63U in figure 6 & 63-1 in Fig.2 &63.1-to3 in Fig.5 ) holed in the bottom of the cavity of knife piston cylinder (62. n in Figures 2, 5 &6) and further connected through the axial slots (65U in Fig.6 & 65in Fig. 5 & 65 in Fig.2) connecting the axial hole (62) to the central spring piston cavity (64) . This arrangement allows easy and fast flow of oil from and to the knife piston cylinder cavity (62) when the knife piston would be sliding in or out, as explained earlier. {48}

As shown in Figure 2 +3, on each Roller body (28.x) of the pair has totally 30 such knifes and pistons ( there can be more, depending on the harvesting machine size and power available {50}

Refer the Figure 2 , 3 and 5. From the Figure 3 , it can be seen that the roller is divided along the axis into four blocks. 28.1 to 28.4 in figure 2&3 . In each block there are three axial rows of knifes (29) and knife pistons (61), with the cylinder bores for knife pistons( 62). The three rows of one block are at 120°, along the roller axis, from each other. The lines of rows of Knifes of each blocks are angularly shifted by 30° from each other. This means at any moment of time only 1/4^th of the axial length of rollers, would be actually engaged in gripping or chopping action. This means the Torque is reduced to one fourth. Obviously the chopper roller would be operating at much reduced power than the full length knife chopper as used now. . {52}

With several experiments it is observed that there are as many as 15 sugar canes in a length of one meter. If the cane length is 4m and the pulling rollers pull the cane at a speed of 4m/s (which is the highest possible speed in current machine ). In such condition the cane will remain in the first roller for 1 second. Where as during this time the modern super speed harvester would travel by 1 m ( 1 acre per hour .. 4000m length of rows @1 m row spacing makes one acre. So 4000 m/hr = 1m/s approximately. ) if there are 15 canes in one meter, then at any time 15 canes will be passing through the rollers. This is impossible to accommodate in the harvester roller length of 600mm as the cane is average diameter of 35mm . {54}

So, this can be understood that the ratio between the harvester traction speed and the linear speed of cane travel must be increased when dense sugar cane field is being cut. So it is important to increase the speed of the cane travel in the dense fields. So the motor of roller driving is preferred to run at variable rpm, that is optimized for the field density, specifically, the number of canes per meter.

To work in this dense condition and to avoid overlapping and entanglement of the canes in dense fields, the invention has used a cage of Rings (80.1 to 80. n as in Figure 8 ) spaced at a distance equal to maximum cane dia. ( as shown in the Figure 8 , 8A ) The cage is mounted on the roller outer diameter. There are slots on the periphery of the cage, (81.1 to 81. n) to accommodate the knifes to slide in and out. The rings (80.1 To 8.n) form a groove type space between each other. The Ring rotating with the Roller chopper will guide the in coming new cane to occupy only one slot avoiding any entanglement. The number of grooves on the Cage is equal to the number of knifes in one row. {56} This knife , as discussed till now , and shown in the figures 2, 3 , 4 would not have a complete circular circumferential contact with the sugar cane. There is no relative motion between the knife and the cane. So there is no scraping action, that is desired to strip the leaf still adhered to the sugar cane.

For achieving this stripping of leaves attached to the heaviest cane, use the same pair of roller chopper, but in scraper mode. For that this pair is placed after the Tops chopper , but instead of the pairing in above manners, it must be turned around, meaning that change the upper roller to bottom and bottom roller to upper side. This changes the angle of the knife ( see Fig. 7) the rotation of the roller is against the direction of the cane travel. In this arrangement the 100% of leaves are shredded due to scraping action at high relative speed between the cane and the knife {58}

This pair of rollers can be used to replace the billet chopper of the current machine . where in the same set of rollers is employed but with a bigger , three times stiffer spring that exerts three times pressure, sufficient to cut the sweet cane .

The advantages of using this design for chopping of sugar cane in chopped cane harvester is

1] reduced peak torque. Due to staggered cutting knifes.

2] Tolerating the entree of stone and hard material . Since the knifes get retracted if any harder material enters in , the same would happen if a stone enters the roller . The knifes will remain unharmed . {60}

( Even though it is not recommended to chop the cane if the cane can be cleaned without chopping . )

This tops chopper eliminates the need of the Blower and the chopper. The whole cane is thrown out at 5m/s speed , which would be completely clean. There is no further requirement of the elevator, blower extractor and the chopper, saving huge money on the power.

Further advantage of this process is the trash is collected in a chamber and is offered as a bye-product to feed the animal or as a fuel . This is generation of money which is more than the cost of the harvesting. So, practically making the effective cost of harvesting to zero or negative . {62} 8] DRAWING FIGURES

Figure 1 : PRIOR ART and INTRODUCING THE NEW INVENTED ROLLERS TOPS CHOPPER

1 - Cane with full sugar . Hard, dense 2. Leaf of the cane and long.

3. Knock down Roller to bend down 4. swing frame to adjust the amount of the cane before cutting from the base bending of the cane 5. Roots of the plant below the base 6 . Base cutter of conventional machine cutter

7. Nubile stem , the top portion of the 8. But lift rollers . that lifts the cane sugar cane, which is soft , green , and from the bottom and throws into the nearly made of leaf tissue. pair of first pulling roller.

9. Bottom side fixed Rollers for pulling 10. Top side swinging rollers for pulling the cane the cane

11 . Swing frame for swinging rollers of 28: - Newly invented soft cane top side Chopper rollers to show the position (L=lower U=Upper)

18. the chopper Rollers of the existing 17 . chopper blades of exisiting machines . machines

20. Cut billet of the cane flying from 29. Blades -Knifes of new inventions the chopper

FIGURE 2. : Chopper Roller overall assembly view with section showing inner parts

20. : Spacer for mounting motor 21. Gear box Cover with tow bearing

22. drive motor bosses .

23. flanged axles : on which mounted 24. gear (driven) are gear(24) and Bearings( 25,26) and the complete body of chopper (28)

25. taper roller bearing rear 26. Taper roller bearing front

27. gear box housing 28. Chopper main body having axial 28.1 & 28.1. U - Chopper Roller Body sections 28.1 + 28.2 + 28.3 + 28.4 - segment- smaller, and first from gear Integral or Bolted. Box. U means upper roller. 28.2 & 28.2 U as above but 2^nd segment

28.3 & U : Third axial segment (from , Twisted by 30 degree having 3 knife gear box 27) of the body of the rollers piston bores.. Larger axial length. of the chopper. U is the upper roller 29. knifes (lower)

28.4 &28.4U : fourth Segment (from 29.1.2 : Knifes operating in axial sector gear box 27) of the Rollers Body .. the number 1 (2^nd decimal ) and in 2^nd longer axial length with three knife angular position (3^rd decimal) 29.4.1 and U the pair of knifes in 4^th 36. bearing housing Plate ( rear ). segment of Body and at 1^st angular 36A Lower Hub of Bearing housing position shown in angular peak of 36B:- Upper Hub of Bearing Housing contact to each other 38. Central Spring 37. Bores - Cylinder for Knife Piston (all) 39L & 39U. Flanged Axle Rear ( U= in Total 30 in one Roller upper and 30 in Upper Roller) lower roller. Divided in four axial 40. Inlet Cover (of upper Roller) segments. Each axial segment of Roller 41. Spring piston Rod /pressure gauge has three , 120° apart, rows . 1^st and 42. Spring Piston (of upper roller) Last 4^th segment has 2 in one axial row 43: Screw Piston Rod and 3 and 2^nd segment has three in one 61: pistons on the knife axial row 62.1: Cylinder bore for Knife piston

65U: Axial Slot that connect the axial 63.1: Axial holes connecting the holes to the central cavity , Cylinder bores of one block in one row

Figure 3 : Overall picture of the invention chopper roller with the cage (2A) and without Cage showing inside arrangement (2B)

Numbers are same as above Fugure 2

FIGURE 4 : Outer View of Rollers for Chopper All as above in figure 2 plus

43: Screw Piston Rod 44 : Outer Seal for Inlet port

45: Groove on Inlet Cover 46: Inner seal for inlet port

47: Oil passage for inlet to piston 48: Graduation mark for pressure gauge on Piston rod gauge

49.: Seals Outer on Spring piston (42) 50 : Seal Inner in Spring Piston (42) 51: Seal on Piston Rod gauge (41) in 52 : Taper Roller bearing larger Screw piston rod (43)

53: Seal on Flanged axle in bearing Plate

FIGURE 5 : SECTION through 4^th Block of Roller bodies of the Tops Chopper. Showing the cutting/gripping sequence

29 : Knife for cutting Tops 29.2.1 : 1^st Row of Knifes (of 3 knifes) , 29.1 .1 : knifes row (2pcs) in the first in the second (from gear box) block of block of Roller body(28.1) at the first the roller body at an angle of -30°, from out of three rows placed at 120degree the last block's 1^st angular row (29.4.1) angular position ,This row has angular 29.3.1 : 1^st Row of Knifes (of 3 knifes) , position of +30° (0 is at peak slide of in the 3^rd (from gear box) block of the knife piston : shown by 29.4.1 ) roller body at an angle of +60°, from the last (4^th) block's 1^st row (29.4.1)

1: Sweet part of Sugar Cane 29.4.1 (&U) : The pair of row of 7: Tops (Top portion of Sugar cane knife(2pcs) in the last 4^th block from stem, that is Nubile, Soft, sugarless) gear box, at a angular position 0°, as a 28.4 (&U) : 4^th Block of Roller body touching to each other ( Lower to from gear box, (U=upper) Upper)

60 : Seal for Knife piston 62 (lto3) : Hydraulic cylinder bores for

61 (-lto 3) : Knife Piston (hydraulic each knife piston sliding piston joint to knife) 63 (lto3): Axial holes , passage, that

64: Central common hydraulic cavity connects adjascent piston cylinders 65. Slot that connects the cylinder bores (62) and the passage (63) to the central common cavity (64) .

Figure 6: DRIVE GEAR BOX Section showing internal parts "

Numbers are explained in figure 2 and 5

FIGURE 7: Chopping Rollers in the role of Scraping rollers.

71: The leaves attched to cane 72: Sugar cane stem

FIGURE 8A: CAGE RINGS to Guide the Traveling cane

80.1 to 80.n : Rings that guide the cane

81.1 to 81.n : Slots to allow free movement of Knife and pistons FIGURE 8B: The Rollers Top Chopper covered with the CAGE

Claims

11] CLAIMS I claim

1 ] I claim A chopping system of pair of hydraulic Rolling choppers , for cutting off the nubile sugarless top stems of sugar cane, and the leaves of the sugar cane, in mechanized harvesting machine, where in several axial rows of small cutting blades /knifes, each fitted on one hydraulic piston, the piston sliding inside cylinders cut on a periphery of pair of oppositely rotating chopper roller body, between which the sugar cane is made to pass through, wherein the knifes during rotation of the rollers in pair , are delicately forced to cut only the nubile soft sugarless stem, without harming the sweet cane, wherein all such piston cylinders are connected to one central cylinder cavity , having a larger central piston, opposed by a large spring, there by the large spring exerting equal force on all the knives, through a connected hydraulic oil, allowing delicate control on the pressure of the oil, where in the pressure in this system proportionally create a knifing force on the cutting knife , and enabling the knife to cut only the soft sugarless stems, and keeping the stem of sugar cane intact and the trash being stripped off.

21 I further claim a chopper roller system as in claim one, where in the pressure measurement is precisely made possible by reading the marking on a piston rod that shows position of a piston where in the preciseness and least count of measurement is increased by using an annular piston, so as to reduce the effective area of piston, forced against a least stiff spring, there by also allowing to use.

31 Further I Claim a Roller chopper system as in the claim one where in the angle of sliding bores of the knife pistons is arranged in such a manner that the knife blades of opposite rollers would meet at a right angle and in parallel to each other manner , at the time of first touch to the cane, so that , they exert the exact perpendicular position thereby transferring all hydraulic force to cutting , further that ensures the lowest pressure level to be used for the soft tissue cutting.

41 I further claim a roller chopper system as in the claim one where in the peak torque demand is reduced heavily by dividing the roller in four or more axial block, and twisting each one by equal angle along the rotary axis, wherein the knife are arranged in axial rows, which are also divided in three or four axial rows ,so that at any one moment of time only one set of the knifes are employed in cutting action , thereby reducing the total torque on the drive. 51 1 further claim a system as in claim one where in a cage of sheet steel surrounds the periphery wherein a thin tube that fits on the roller outer diameter, has several sheet rings in radial direction are provided, with an axial spacing of little more than the thickest cane, so that the space between the rims allocates one cane at a time, only , avoiding the entanglement of the cane, where in on the periphery of the tube are made slots, through and through, radially, exactly around each of the knifes of the tops choppers, so that inside the slot, the free radial sliding of the knife is easily possible.

61 I also claim the roller chopper system as in the claim one where in the same set is used for chopping the full grown sweet cane in to billets on conventional machine, by increasing the stiffness of the main spring and by increasing the system pressure as high to cause the cutting of cane but low enough to retract the knifes against hard stones and metals , so as the knifes and chopper get protected from damage from stone and hard metals.

71 I further claim the roller system as in the claim one where in the same knife rollers be used to scrape the skin of the cane to strip off the nubile shoots and leaf joints by a relative sliding motion, instead of griping, where in the rollers spin in opposite direction to the direction of the traveling of the cane, achieved by rotating the whole assembly upside down, wherein, the lower roller takes the position of upper roller and vise versa, so that the knife make low rake angle to enter in between the leaf and the stem and uproots it from the joint, and also unable reverse rotation , and enables the use of the same chopper as a reversed scraper .

81 1 further claim a roller chopper system as in the claim one, wherein the sliding of the knife and piston does not cause to change the system pressure, by arranging the small segments of knife in many set of axial rows at different angles, and in equal number of knife pistons in each set, where in , further the roller body is divided axially in four or more blocks , and the row of knifes in each block are Shifted at angularly equal division , so as to compensate and nullify the flow of compressing pistons to the retrieving pistons, and effectively keep the system pressure unaltered, at every moment there would be equal number of pistons sliding in to that of sliding out .

9] I further claim the Tops chopper as in the claim one, where in the chamber in which the roller are placed, collects the trash of leaves and tops, so as to offer the trash as animal food and earn as a bye-product.