ANALYSIS OF THE ENERGY CONSUMPTION OF MOTORISED CIRCULAR SAW WHEN CUTTING OIL PALM FROND
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2023.0063
Received: 15 April 2023 Accepted: 3 October 2023 Published Online: 5 December 2023
Existing pruning technique uses the sickle or chisel, manually or mechanically powered using small internal combustion engine. The current challenge of going for zero carbon emission for the oil palm industry requires the replacement of all internal combustion engines with battery powered electrical tools. It is important to reduce the force and power consumption of the cutting process which can affect the number of cuts made per battery charge. One efficient cutting process is the use of a circular saw which is widely adopted in the lumber processing but not in the oil palm harvesting. Cutting the oil palm fronds with a circular saw has never been studied before. In the paper, the mechanism of energy consumption in the circular saw-cutting process of oil palm fronds is studied, and the model of power (w) and work (J) is established. Comparing the test results with the theoretical values calculated by the model, indicating that no significant difference in cutting work model for the oil palm fronds (38<F<145, 0.72<R2<0.91, P<0.05) based on the different cutting conditions. The validated cutting energy equation is used in the optimisation of the cutting process of a 100 mm base wide of an oil palm frond resulting in the minimum cutting energy of 330 J for rotational speed of 1000 rpm and feed rate of 10 mm/s.
KEYWORDS:1 School of Mechanical Engineering,
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM),
14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia.
* Corresponding author e-mail: Sq842943050@outlook.com