Pusa Chaff Cutter Safety Interventions

Introduction

Every rural household irrespective of their socio-economic status having cattle keeps the chaff cutter, which is usually operated twice daily depending upon the number of cattle. Any member of family performs the operation and the chaff cuter is also accessible to children for playing. This is associated with many injuries in the rural households. The severities of injuries are also high as it has sharp blades and feed rollers. Inadvertently, body part coming in contact with the blades may results in amputation. Similarly hands getting trapped between the serrated power rollers also result in crushing injury.

 

Technical Details

a) Blade Guard : It consists of a metal guard made up of mild steel sheet and can be attached to the two existing blade bolts. It can be opened for sharpening of the blades.

(b) Flywheel Lock : It is spring loaded mechanical lock that prevents rotation of the flywheel in standby mode.

(c) Warning Roller : It consists of a serrated wooden roller that gives a warning when the hand is in danger zone while feeding the chaff cutter.

•  Size of blade guard : 46 cm x 22 cm

•  Length of roller : 17.6 cm

•  Length of flywheel lock : 18 cm

•  Total weight : 1.3 kg

•  Estimated cost (Only safety kit): 920/-

(Chaff cutter with safety kit): 9,775/-

Advantages :

•  This prevents injuries during working and non-working conditions.

•  It is easy to fabricate and install on existing and new chaff cutter.

 

For further information please contact :

Indian Agricultural Research Institute,
New Delhi