Basic actions of the straw walkers lift the mat of crop upwards and backwards with further contacts from the walker (Neale, et al., 2003). With the air stream from the cleaning fan, the upper layer crop material (e.g. leafs, chaff, etc) obtained upwards and forwards forces. See Figure 1 for details.

The modified straw walker has pivot points, which allow the slope of the straw-walker to be changed (Kemble, et al., 2002). Also expanded metal are added over the openings to restrict light materials (e.g. fiber) from falling through (Kemble, et al., 2002).

"The efficiency of grain separation in a straw walker separator depends on the separating area and the length of time that the crop is in the separator (Neale, et al., 2003; Reed, 1974; Klenin, et al., 1985)".

Applications

Kenaf fiber from core xylem (harvesting kenaf and separating the fiber and core)

Reference:

Neale, M.A., Hobson, R.N., Price, J.S., and Bruce, D.M. (2003) Effectiveness of Three Types of Grain Seperator fr Crop Matter Harvested With a Stripping Header. Biosystem Engineering . 84(2):177-191.

Kemble, L.J., Krishnan, P., Henning, K.J., Tilmon, H.D. (2002) Development and Evaluation of Kenaf Harvesting Technology. Biosystem Engineering . 81(1):49-56.

Klenin, N.I., Popov, I.F., Sakun, V.A. (1985) Agricultural Machines , pp 491-429. Russian Translation series. 31 Balkema AA, Rotterdam .

Reed, W.B. (1974) A Laboratory Study of Grain / Straw Separation. Transactions of the ASAE , 17(3):452-460.