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Cleaner Technology Projects in Denmark 1997
Examination of Beet Lifting and Beet Cleaning in an Armer
Salmon and in a TIM Beet Digger
Undersøgelse af roeoptagningen og –rensning i en Armer
Salmon og en TIM roeoptager
Arbejdsrapport nr. 46, 1997, Miljøstyrelsen
Danisco Sugar initiated in 1993 a project called "Rene Roer" (clean beets)
which purpose was to ensure that the sugar beets were brought to the
factories as clean as possible, and if possible so clean that further cleaning at the
factory would be unnecessary. In this phase of the project there has been focused on the
possibilities of improving the cleaning conditions in the beet diggers
partly by lifting the beets with as little adjacent soil as possible, and partly by
installing extra cleaning modules in the harvesters.
During the 1995 campaign two experimental beet harvesters from Armer Salmon
(Ireland) and TIM (Denmark) were tested in 4 fields in East-Denmark under different
harvesting conditions and with different additional cleaning equipment.
Armer lifts the beets by drawing in the top, and the beets are fixed between two belts
and led to topping and mechanical cleaning in the harvester. The beets are oriented and
positioned fixed between the belts for further cleaning with brushes and/or air, and these
cleaning methods were tested in the harvester.
TIM lifts the beets by squeezing and pushing up the beets from the earth by means of
the so-called oppel wheels. This method results in large amounts of soil being lifted into
the harvester, and the demands on an effective cleaning will be heavy. Harvesting by oppel
wheels and a subsequent cleaning in star wheels are standard
practice in Denmark.
The comparison of the two harvesting principles with subsequent cleaning in the
cleaning devices mounted by the supplier showed that under ideal/good harvesting
conditions as well as under good/hard harvesting conditions the TIM harvester produced
beets with less residual soil than the Armer harvester.
The cleaning modules (brushes and air nozzles) for the Armer harvester were constructed
and mounted at the harvester under great consideration of the initial construction of the
harvester, i.e. at the belts where space was left over. No greater changes of the
construction of the harvester were made in order to make allowance for orientation and
single beet cleaning.
Consequently, the effect of the mentioned additional cleaning modules was minimal. For
brushes as well as for compressed air it means that the contact times of 0.4 sec. and 0.07
sec., respectively, should be essentially increased in order to have some effect, and the
cleaning should be more oriented to the places of the beet where the soil is actually
found.
Author/ institution
Franck B. Hansen, Flemming Hansen og Bjarne Fallesen, Danisco Sugar
This report is subsidised by the National Council for Recycling and Cleaner Technology
ISSN no. 0908-9195
ISBN no. 87-7810-812-8
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