Development of a 1-row platform for harvesting castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) coupled to a tractor by the company JLS Máquinas

• Grant number: 22/07968-0
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Duration: March 01, 2023 - November 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Mechanical Engineering Design
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Henrique Polegato
• Grantee: Paulo Henrique Polegato
• Host Company: JLS Máquinas Ltda
• CNAE: Cultivo de oleaginosas de lavoura temporária, exceto soja ; Fabricação de máquinas e equipamentos de uso geral não especificados anteriormente ; Fabricação de máquinas e equipamentos para a agricultura e pecuária, exceto para irrigação
• City: Matão

Abstract

The cultivation of castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) is destined for the extraction of oil from the seed. This oil has its increasingly intense use in industry, mainly in the substitution of petroleum derivatives and new pharmaceutical applications. This market has an expected annual growth rate of 4.3% and could reach $1,429.7 billion by 2027. However, the development of combined equipment for harvesting and separation castor bean is still very limited, due to the characteristics of the plant, the lack of standardization of plantings, and the low efficiency of harvesters adapted from other crops. There is, therefore, a lot of room for the development of harvesting equipment that brings more efficiency and profitability to the productive process. It is a crop with agro-economic potential, for it does not present direct competition with food crops, it adapts to climatic conditions less demanding in water, reaching good yields from 500 mm per cycle. In general, its cultivation is done by small producers, many times coming from settlements, who need to mechanize the production, to gain efficiency and competitiveness. The predominant harvesting method is still manual or semi-manual. JLS has experience in the castor oil plant segment and has launched in the market a harvesting platform of 06 lines, model JLS Kascavel 6/1000 and is one of the few castor oil plant harvesting equipment manufacturers in the country. The proposal aims to obtain support for research aimed at developing a harvester of 01 line, focused on the small Brazilian farmer. Besides the expertise in design and manufacture of agricultural equipment for castor oil plant harvesting, JLS, in partnership with researchers from the São Carlos Engineering School of the University of São Paulo (EESC-USP), seeks to add automation and instrumentation processes to its equipment, with the purpose of reducing losses in the harvest and grain trailing. The project will be executed, initially, in two simultaneous fronts: adaptation of the harvesting and cutting systems of the JLS Kascavel 6/1000 for 01 line and the research and development of the trailing and separation system. In the second stage, the two fronts will come together for integration tests and field trials. The budget provides resources for the construction and testing (some in real field situations) of a prototype harvester with an instrumented harvester, of 01 line, which will be pulled by a tractor. JLS will allocate all the physical structure, backoffice, support from the internal engineering and production teams, besides its machines, to execute the research project, within the foreseen deadlines. JLS intends, through the development of the prototype of the harvester of 01 line, to take the first steps towards the insertion of an innovative product, aimed at small and medium castor oil plant producers. In the attachments we present the details of some topics such as: the Brazilian castor oil plant market, analysis of the identified patents and the main equipment manufactured by JLS, as well as the details of the budget. (AU)