Design evaluation of crop conditioners with plastic elements

Three types of crop engaging element for conditioner rotors were developed from plastic materials. Performance evaluations of conditioner configurations using the elements were made by drying replicate treated and untreated samples under controlled conditions in the laboratory. They showed that single horizontal rotors improved average crop drying rates by 50–84% and twin horizontal rotors by 62–135%. However, design details, particularly in the crop intake region, markedly affected performance. Most work was done with brush conditioning systems and, of these, twin intermeshing brushes were the most energy-efficient, increasing the drying rate by 18% per kilowatt applied to the crop. Vertical conditioning rotors are still at the development stage, but first evaluations gave drying rate improvements of 41–67%.