Abstract

The performance of sugarcane harvesters depend on function of subsystems. This paper describes failure rate and mean time between failures (MTBF) for sugarcane harvesters 7000 series which are used in HakimFarabi agro-industry of Iran. Sugarcane harvesters were divided into nine subsystems and their failures were studied for 4500 working hours. The failure rate of subsystems including engine, hydraulic transmission, topper, base cutter, chopper, feed rollers, elevator, wheels and extractor fans were calculated 0.014, 0.05, 0.023, 0.065, 0.03, 0.037, 0.026, 0.016, and 0.009 (1/h), respectively. Furthermore, MTBF for subsystems after 4500 working hours were computed 72.21, 20.26, 73.41, 15.53, 33.92, 27.25, 38.66, 61.09, and 111.85 (h), respectively for the aforementioned subsystems. Among the nine investigated components, base cutter with maximum failure rate and minimum MTBF and extractor fans with minimum failure rates and maximum MTBF were recognized the most unreliable and reliable subsystems respectively.