KU-2

At the beginning of the 30s in Rostov-on-Don, a local combine of VISKHOM developed a corn harvester, but its design was too complicated and it did not go into production.

In 1938, Rostov inventors P. Volikov and F. Bartenev proposed a unique design of a corn-silage harvester. The meeting at the Azov-Black Sea Agricultural Institute considered and approved this idea. With the assistance of the Inventory Bureau of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR, the Rostov Mechanical Plant produced in 1939 an experimental model that successfully passed the tests. Taking into account the comments of the test commission, P. Volikov made some changes to the design and in 1940 Rostselmash released a new experimental prototype of the combine. After tests conducted in the fall near Krasnodar, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR instructed Rostselmash to finalize it and by July 15, 1941 produce three combines for testing and one for the All-Union exhibition. The order was executed, but because of the outbreak of war, further work on the combines was suspended, they were hidden outside the city. In 1946, the surviving specimens were sent for testing. In 1948, the result of many years of work of VISKHOM and Rostselmash was the KU-2 combine ^[1] . It began to be produced in 1949 ^[1] , then being upgraded to KU-2A.

Unfortunately, KU-2A did not live up to the expectations of designers and was removed from Rostov production in 1955. Then it was modernized by the Kherson combine plant and in the summer of 1956 it was offered to collective farms and state farms for testing, after which KU-2B was created. But Kherson designers were still unhappy: these machines also did not meet the increased requirements of agricultural production ^[2] . In the same 1956, the production of KU-2A was mastered in Kremenchug (Ukraine), at KrAZ (14061 combines ^[3] were produced there) and in Yurg ( Kemerovo region ), in Yurmash ^[4] .

The harvester is served by three people - a tractor driver, a combine harvester and a tailor.

KU-2 collects ears in a hopper located on the left side, the silage mass in a trailed stacker. Then the cobs are unloaded into the transport, the silage mass is unloaded by the chain-slat conveyor of the stacker.

When the machine moves across the field, the stalks of corn, falling into the channels between the dividers, are captured and brought to the cutting apparatus. The cut stems are moved by the same chains in a vertical position to the sketchy rollers, while the lower ends of the stems slide along the inclined trays. Near the posterior end of the tray, the comeli of the stems pass into the mouth of the feeding rollers, which grab them and stretch them down. At the same time, the stems continue to move back due to the presence of screw reefs on the sketchy rollers. While pulling the stems between the rollers, the cobs break away from the stems and fall onto the chain-slat conveyor, then into the auger, with which they move to the elevator of the cobs. With its scrapers, the elevator captures them and transports them to the hopper. The stalk is crushed in a drum. The crushed mass is thrown by the drum onto the elevator and moved by it into the trailed stacker. Periodically, after each filling of the stacker, the mass is unloaded into the transport. Instead of a stacker, a tractor trolley can be used where the ground mass will be unloaded.

The chassis is made up of two wheels with half shafts attached to the frame using flanged scarves and clamps. Wheels from GAZ-51 or ZIS-5 . The stem tap on the frame of the combine is a pipe placed at an angle to the direction of movement of the combine (the position is adjustable).

The tilt mechanism consists of a screw with a handle, a shaped lever with a nut at the upper end and a hinge at the lower end, a tilt pipe pivotally connected at one end to the lever and the other to the combine frame. A spring shock absorber is mounted in the front of the pipe.

Dividers form two channels. On the extreme dividers there are two tiers of chains, and on average four.

The cutting apparatus it consists of one segment and two opposing plates. The distance between the knife segments is 700 mm, the other 900 mm. The presser legs of the knife of the cutting apparatus are fixed so that they lightly touch the back of the knife, ensuring its free movement. The gap between the segment and the counter plate must not exceed 1.5 mm. The gap between the back of the knife and the presser foot should be no more than 0.5 mm. The permissible offset of the axis of the segment in the middle position of the knife from the axis of the opposing plates should not exceed 5 mm.

• Coverage - 2 rows with row spacing of 700 or 900 mm
• Tire size - 7-16
• Track width - 2171 mm
• Cutting machine

• Knife - 2 segments
• Knife stroke - 90 mm
• Minimum cutting height - 90 mm

• Supply chains

• Tilt - 36 °
• Number of tiers of chains - 4 on the inside. dividers, 2 on external
• Speed ​​- 1.56 m / s

• Tearing apparatus

• Number of pairs of tearing rollers - 2
• The diameter of the rollers on the ledges - 83 mm
• Roller length - 750 mm
• Roll angle - 20 °
• Speed ​​- 603 rpm

• Drums

• Qty - 2
• Diameter - 250 mm
• Length - 730 mm
• Speed ​​- 955 rpm
• Number of knives - 4
• Blade peripheral speed - 12.5 m / s
• Stem cutting length - 40 mm

• Reception scraper conveyor

• Scrapers pitch - 304 mm
• Conveyor width - 424 mm
• Tilt angle to the horizon - 20 °
• Speed ​​- 0.92 m / s

• Unloading scraper conveyor of ears

• Scrapers pitch - 342 mm
• Conveyor width - 300 mm
• Tilt angle to the horizon - 62.2 °
• Speed ​​- 1.16 m / s

• Ground Scraper Conveyor

• Scrapers pitch - 304 mm
• Conveyor width - 454 mm
• The angle of inclination to the horizon - 10-55 °
• Speed ​​- 2 m / s

• Screw

• Diameter - 260 mm
• Pitch - 240 mm
• The number of revolutions - 193 rpm

• Ears bunker

• Capacity - 1 m³
• Unloading method - by gravity

Notes

Literature

• A.V. Krasnichenko. Handbook of agricultural machinery designer. - M. , 1961.
• A.I. Malitsky, R.S. Galadzheviy. Corn harvester KU-2. - Selkhozgiz, 1955.
• “Technique of Youth”, No. 11 of 1977
• M.V. Galdin, senior. scientific Research Institute of Agricultural Mechanization. The article "Mechanized harvesting of corn"