Design a cutter prototype to separate date palm leaflets from fronds (Rachis)

Abstract

This study was carried out, at Dept. of Agric. Eng., Faculty of Agric., Mansoura Univ., Egypt during 2014 spring season, to design and evaluate a cutting prototype performance and production as a date palm leaves components (fronds, leaflets and spines).  The tested treatments include saw speed (167.5, 251.2, 334.9 and 418.7 rad s^-1), saw teeth inner spacing (4, 5 and 8 mm) and feeding speed ratio (1:1, 1:1.25, 1:1.67 and 1:2.50).  The study concluded that the optimum operation conditions of saw speed of 334.9 rad s^-1, saw teeth inner spacing of 8 mm and 1:1.25 feeding speed ratio achieved cut fronds productivity of 1051.5 m h^-1, cut leaflets and spines productivity of 183.86 kg h^-1, cutting leaflets efficiency of 99.32%, leaflet losses of 0.68 %, frond cleaning quality of 100.03% and specific energy requirement of 0.08 kW h m^-1.  The research recommended that the designed machine could be used for cutting date palm leaflets in a large scale to suitable amount for process palm wood, crina, baskets, fodder, and pectin extraction.