Cotton pickers have often been compared to a helicopter due to their multiple rotating parts and fine tolerances.
To prevent the machine from breaking down due to outstanding maintenance issues, you need to follow the manufacturer’s recommendations when it comes to scheduling replacements, rebuilds, and critical maintenance.
Pre-season Maintenance
Aside from normal engine maintenance, changing filters, replacing oil, and greasing, your Case IH cotton picker requires specific attention to the harvesting heads.
Due to the multiple spinning components and very tight tolerances, any wear and tear can cause catastrophic failures, fires, or reduced harvesting efficiency.
All of which costs you money.
Maintenance Schedules
Depending on the age and usage of your machinery, parts require daily, weekly, monthly or seasonal maintenance. There are certain parts and assemblies that you will need to either replace or rebuild every 2-5 years.
For these maintenance tasks, you need to ensure that you obtain original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts or high-quality Case IH aftermarket parts. While using cheaper alternatives may seem like a good cost-saving idea, the quality control and material specifications are invariably lacking.
OEM or Aftermarket Parts
These sub-standard parts invariably lead to damage or accelerated wear, which negates any potential cost-saving you may have initially achieved.
Using trusted parts manufactured to the correct specifications and supplied by reputable dealerships ensures that the machinery operates properly, doesn’t break down, and the useful life of the equipment is extended.
Spindle Maintenance Issues
The multiple rows of razor-sharp spindles are the business end of your cotton picker. As they rotate, they strip the cotton from the plant and, in the process, become worn and chipped.
The bearings become worn and the gear teeth wear down to the point where they are no longer operational. Naturally, the ones near the bottom wear out first and you can prolong their useful life by exchanging them for less worn spindles at the top of the column.
Before harvesting, you need to make sure that all the spindles are operational and if not, they must be removed from the row unit and repaired or replaced.
A quick test to see if your spindles are in good working order is to try and spin each one by hand. If the spindles are loose and can be turned with your fingers, then they are so-called “dead spindles”. These spindles, together with any broken spindles, should be immediately replaced to prevent damage to the doffers and moisture pads.
Misalignment of the spindles can cause excessive wear or damage to the doffers as the gaps between the spindles and the doffers are very fine.
The sideways pressure on the spindles during harvesting causes wear on the bushings at the top and bottom of the bar. You can recognize this when checking the bar heights for a vertical gap of more than 0.006 inches. You’ll then need to replace the spindle bushings.
Checking and correcting any alignment differences is a critical task that you should do throughout the harvest season.
Also, check that there isn’t too much rust on the spindles as that degrades performance, reducing the amount of cotton that sticks to the spindle as it rotates through the cotton plant.
Prolonging Doffer Life
As the doffers are spinning much more quickly than the spindle, they must be correctly aligned. The spindles pass through the gaps between the doffers, causing the cotton to unwind and be stripped off.
There is only a gap, the thickness of a dollar bill, between the spindle and the doffer.
Any misalignment of the doffers or the spindles, or wear in the bushings can cause them to collide, resulting in damage or excess wear.
The doffer’s job is to unwind the cotton from the spindle to allow it to be sucked up in the hopper. And, as cotton is highly flammable, sparks caused by misaligned equipment banging together can cause a fire.
This can threaten not only the harvested cotton but also the entire cotton picker.
The doffer columns must be carefully checked annually or even bi-annually if the cotton picker is used heavily during harvest season.
The polyurethane doffers wear down quite quickly, which affects their ability to strip the cotton off the spindle.
Doffer columns are removed and taken apart to correct any wear and tear. The doffers are ground so that the edges are square and then spacers are placed between the doffers to ensure correct alignment.
Moisture Pad Maintenance
Finally, the spindles rotate through the moisture pads.
A soapy water mixture is pumped into each pad which is then squeezed onto the spindles as they pass by.
This slick, soapy residue helps the cotton slide off the spindle when it contacts the doffer. It goes without saying that the moisture tank needs to be kept filled daily to prevent the spindles from running dry.
You also need to inspect the moisture columns regularly to check that they aren’t bent.
If they’re out of true, remove the columns and straighten them on a jig so that the moisture pads make contact with the spindles correctly.
Greasing the Spindles
The spindles connect to a drive shaft with a multitude of gears that all require grease.
Each day, before harvesting begins, onboard greasing systems pump grease into the assembly. After about 6 hours of operations, it requires grease again.
A ready supply of grease is essential to reduce friction and heat in the spindle assemblies. Over time, as the gears wear down, replace them.
Maintaining Efficient Harvesting
The worst thing that can happen is that the spindles become wrapped with cotton either due to being dirty or rusted, lacking moisture, or failing to contact the doffers correctly so that the cotton is not removed each time it passes by.
The correct maintenance procedures and inspections are all performed to maintain the efficient operation of each component in the harvester.
Neglecting just one of the items on the list can result in the loss of a huge amount of money. So, the time spent on maintaining the machinery is money in your pocket.
Not only does maintenance prolong the life of your machinery, but it also ensures that you maximize the amount of cotton harvested.
Using cheap or substandard parts can come back to bite you when you least expect it. For this reason, choosing a reputable supplier who is knowledgeable about the machinery you operate and who carries the spares and technical know-how, is vital.
Companies such as Certi-Pik, USA not only carry all the Case IH aftermarket parts you may need, but they also fabricate spares and offer an online and telephonic order system. Together with same-day delivery, your replacement parts are readily available whenever you need them.
