Design and development of double rotor drum shredding machine for managing pineapple residue in peat soil

In Malaysia, Pineapple is a one of tropical crop that contributes in generating Malaysian economy. Pineapple is mostly planted on mineral and peat soils, where each has different practices and approaches. In peat soil condition, nowadays farmers normally manage the pineapple residues by using a chemical to kill and fire to burn before it been replanting. This is common practice to remove the pineapple residues. With this method soil fertility can be affected and open burning will be polluting the environment, as the government nowadays recommending toward green approach. For pineapple farm in mineral soil, MARDI has come out with a machine to shred and plough pineapple plant residues back into the soil which are practiced for mineral soil. The machine is adopt a rotovator concept. Unfortunately, the machine had the unsatisfied result because the plants were not chopped into small pieces but only separated into a few large parts. In the 11ᵗʰ Malaysian plan (RMK-11), the development of a new concept and prototype with a double rotor drum, design type blade, special blade arrangement and speed gave a promising result in a way to manage the residues of pineapple plants easily without chemical or fire. The purpose of the paper is to discuss the design and development of the machined for management of pineapple plant residues on peat soil, including the functionality test. Special arrangement of the blade and type of blade is a focus part that been consider before it been attach to the double rotor drum. The machine capable working rate is 0.28ha/hr and the machine efficiency is 92 %. Maximum machined operation is 7–8 hours per day. As a result the machine chop smooth with fine and easy manage disposal pineapple residue.