Modification and performance improvement of chopper palm frond (AE03-Type)

A chopper machine has been developed to chop oil palm frond (OPF) for cattle feed in Aceh province. This paper reports the results of the modification of the third generation chopper machine named AE03-type. The purpose of this study is to improve the performance of the chopper machine for OPF through the process of modifying the chopper blade. Modifications made are designing a chopper blade with a plate thickness of 6 mm, a length of 15.5 cm and a width of 4 cm arranged in a spiral around a solid shaft with a diameter of 1 inch with a length of 100 cm, as many as 36 pieces. The parameters measured to show the performance of the chopper machine are dimension average of chopped, the percentage of chopped OPF, chopping efficiency, and capacity of the machine. Three variations of rotation speed are tested on the engine, which is 800 rpm, 1200 rpm, and 1600 rpm, respectively. The results show that modifying the chopper knife can improve the performance of the chopper machine. The best rotation speed for this chopper machine is 1200 rpm with length and width of chopped, OPF percentage of chopped, chopping efficiency, and capacity of the machines are 27.5 mm, 1.5 mm, 86.45%, 98.37%, and 147.85 kg/h, respectively. The size of the chopped is following the dimensions of feed for cattle feed needs, especially those in Aceh Province.