RSM 161 Grain Harvester: Innovations at Work

Sometimes it seems that anything which could have been engineered in forage harvester design has been already invented and further improvement is possible only in terms of intellectualization and robotic automation. But it is true that there is no limit to perfection, and there is always someone who will see the chance to make the next step. This idea can be completely applied to the new ROSTSELMASH RSM 161 grain harvester, which entry to the market has certainly become an event for growers.

RSM 161 is the first grain harvester with a double-cylinder thresher-separator unit (TSU) in ROSTSELMASH product range. But at the same time it is the most productive and efficient among all peers, which has been already proved in practice. Having similar power characteristics compared to its counterparts, it shows almost 20% higher performance, and it has no competitors in terms of versatility in working on a wide variety of agricultural backgrounds (especially with harsh conditions).

The grain harvester is designed to harvest all traditional crops – from bread crops, cereals and legumes to row crops, vegetable seeds and herbs. Its unsurpassed versatility lies in the ability of the machine to work on both normal and waterlogged soils or agricultural backgrounds, high-straw bread crops, fields with high weed content, etc.

In accordance with the data specified in the manufacturer's TOR, RSM 161 can harvest bread crops with a grain moisture content of 10 to 25%. But it has a feature that allows threshing highly over-dried heads without losses as well.

Theoretical description

Up to 14 hours of operation without refuelling due to economical, low maintenance 360 HP Cummins QSL 8.9 engine with a tank capacity of 1,050 litres.

Fast connection of heavy adapters, accurate mowing, pile levelling before feeding to the thresher is provided by a feeder house with a load capacity of 4,500 kg with an automatic longitudinal and transverse ground contour following system, a single hydraulic connector, an accelerating beater at the output.

Gentle threshing when harvesting crops, including those weedy with “greenery”, lodged, tangled, wet, and high straw, is provided by the unique TETRA Processor system composed of a main cylinder, an intermediate beater, a separator cylinder, and a rear beater. The harvesting units are spaced as far as possible, and the pile follows a smooth extended trajectory, which results in no damage to grain and straw.

The distinguishing feature of the system is a flexible solid concave that runs under all harvesting units, and which position is adjusted smoothly and quickly, not only at input and output, but also under the cylinders. Emergency concave drop prevents serious problems in case of contingency situations, and possibility to change it over to the lower position allows the harvester to work with over-dried bread crops without cleaning system “blockage” with a large mass of straw.

High grain purity is a merit of the OptiFlow 2-stage cleaning system with an area of 7.1 m² with a patented sieve suspension system. The large difference in sieves height, the finger rake on the precleaner and the “wavy” grid (with combs of different sizes) on the first pan, the powerful area-optimized and power-adjustable air flow ensure efficient cleaning and do not allow highly spiky heads to clog the holes.

Practical application

When it comes to grain crops, the lower yield limit for efficient machine operation is 20 dt/ha. We have obtained certain results during tests.

At pick-up of spring wheat windrows with a yield of 29.9 dt/ha, grain mass to straw mass ratio 1:0.75 and humidity of grain and straw 13.60 and 11.56% respectively, at a speed of 10.43 km/h.

·     At straight cutting of wheat with a yield of 34.2 dt/ha, grain mass to straw mass ratio 1:1.1 and humidity of grain and straw 13.6 and 14.0% respectively, 21% of laid crops and at a speed of 7.8 km/h maximum.

In barley harvesting with a yield of 15-20 dt/ha, the combine harvester threshed about 6 tons in half an hour of basic time, having processed 3.5 ha.  On the triticale field with a yield of 30-40 dt/ha in the phase of milky-wax ripeness, with a humidity at the root of 30-40% (!) the combine threshed 6.6 tons of grain from 2 hectares within half an hour as well. So count yourselves.

And the traditional features are: large hopper capacity (10,500 litres), high unload rate (115 l/s), significant unload height (5.2 m), long auger (6.7 m). For more detailed information, please, contact the manufacturer or dealers.