Second Generation Cornhead Shredder

Second generation cornhead shredder COMBINES Headers 11-3-22 European manufacturers are working fast and furious to develop cornhead shredders that shred cornstalk residue on the go as the corn is harvested. Early designs used a row of rotating blades mounted on the underside of the head. Now a French manufacturer has come up with shredding rollers that replace the snapper rollers on cornheads and both pick the ear and shred the stalk at the same time, requiring 30% less power than other blade-type shredders, according to the manufacturer. At first glance the shredder-rollers look like snapper rollers. The difference is that they're fitted with rows of blunt cutting teeth with square slots between them that "comb" through a solid-mounted set of narrow teeth that fit through slots in the teeth. The rollers mount below the gathering chains. When they grab hold of the stalk, they shred it as it's pulled down through the teeth. Since the ear can't feed into the narrow teeth, it's snapped off and pulled on up into the combine. "It's far superior to other systems that have been developed for shredding stalks because it requires no new mechanical drive systems and no change in the way you normally operate the combine. It's compatible with the design of existing cornheads," company representative D. Poiteaux told FARM SHOW. He notes the new rollers cannot, however, be fitted to existing cornheads due to tooling changes required to make room for the shredders. The shredder rollers are only available on the company's new corn and sunflower harvesting head. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Agram, 238 Bld. Anatole France, 93207 Saint-Denis, Cedex 1, France (ph 48 20 63 45). A German company also makes new roller-type cornhead shredders. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Geeringhoff GMBH & Co., 4730 Mien, West Germany (ph 0 23 82 54 45).

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