Objective
To fully develop a baling machine for use with various types of vine and fruit tree prunings and under differing working conditions to accurately determine its productivity. End-product characteristics such as calorific value and energy efficiency as a boiler fuel were also to be analysed. The annual potential for recovering prunings in Italy is estimated at 977,000 TOE.
Five machines were built and used for the data logging and evaluation phases which were carried out at the Muratori factory (88 trials), in several Italian regions (27 trials) in a number of Community countries (43 trials) and five trials in Egypt.
The bales obtained made a good quality fuel of +/- 4,200 Kcal/Kg which can be used in steam or hot water boilers, provided the combustion chamber is converted to operate with them. The following table gives the mean calorific value of the bales with 10-15% humidity corresponding to the bales 2-3 months after collection and natural drying under shelter.
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Type of Bales made and Costs
prunings collected Total Lit/t Lit/ha
Quantity Tonnes Lit
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Vines 23,574 471,480 24,949,000 52,917 27,277
Apple trees 6,032 119,164 8,442,100 70,844 47,229
Pear trees 4,492 89,62 5,534,700 61,757 37,428
Peach trees 3,536 70,53 4,465,300 63,310 96,595
Plum trees 1,704 33,228 2,649,600 79,740 61,338
Olive trees 3,311 70,623 3,666,000 51,909 28,679
Cotton 1,771 33,649 1,466,400 48,483 24,421
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In addition, if properly pressed the bales may also be used in domestic stoves. There are also plans to use them to produce biogas in centralized and farm consortia where it is not possible to use them directly as fuel.
The machines use of recovering and using otherwise unusable waste reduces fire hazards and the risk of uncontrolled clouds of smoke if burned in the open countryside.
The baling machine collects vine cotton and fruit tree prunings and without shredding makes them into cylindrical, easy to use and transport 20 Kg bales of 50 cm dia. and 50 cm length. The baler can be used on various track widths between plantation rows, on differing types of terrain and fruit tree. Easy to maintain, the machine can be towed or carried on a small or medium powered tractor and is powered from the tractor's drive shaft (540 rpm). Power consumption is 30 Hp and is 120 cm overall width and 190 cm overall length. The machine's other characteristics are :
- a prunings pick-up device consisting of two toothed rollers one above
the other, the lower roller picking up the prunings at ground level
and feeding them into the conveyor with the help of the upper roller;
- a tunnel conveyor which feeds the prunings into the baling press;
- a roller baling press into which the prunings are drawn
and rolled to form bales;
- a pressure-sensing device in the baler which signals when the bale has
reached the required degree of compaction;
- a bale binder which is activated when the bale is thus compacted;
- a bale ejector to the rear of the machine;
- a strong chassis;
- two freely rotating wheels;
- a tow connection to the tractor;
- an operating anti-jamming system which acts on the drive-shaft,
the pick-up roller and the main transmission gearing.
In comparison with existing machines the new baler has the advantage of collecting prunings as and when cut, with no need to shred or cut these into smaller pieces for packaging or equal lengths for baling. Its operation is intermittent in the sense that when a bale is ready the tractor stops, the binder activated and the bale ejected from the rear. When the bale has been ropped the tractor moves forward and the press starts to make the next bale.
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
DEM - Demonstration contractsCoordinator
41051 Castelnuovo Rangone Modena
Italy