DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF AGRICULTURAL CULTIVATOR

International Journal of Pure and Applied MathematicsVolume 116 No. 19 2017, 509-514ISSN: 1311-8080 (printed version); ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)url: http://www.ijpam.euSpecial Issueijpam.euDESIGN AND FABRICATION OF AGRICULTURAL CULTIVATOR11Golden Renjith Nimal, R.J, 2M.Ajmal Ali KhanAsst Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bharath University, BIHER, Chennai-73.2UG Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bharath University, BIHER, n1. IntroductionA developing country like India is expected to continueto rely more on hand tools for the foreseeable future forcultivation. The use of hand tools for land cultivation isstill predominant in India because draft animals andtractors require resources that many Indian farmers donot have easy access to. The need for agriculturalmechanization in India must therefore be assessed with adeeper understanding of the small holder farmer’sactivities and what values farm power generated forthem.As our population continues to increase, it isnecessary that we must produce more food, but this canonly be achieved through some level of mechanization.Manual method of seed planting, results in low seedplacement, spacing efficiencies and serious back ache forthe farmer which limits the size of field that can beplanted. However, planting machine or planter that isnormally required to produce more food is beyond thebuying capacity of small holder farmersThese small holder farmers still continue to plantmanually, the result of which is low productivity of thecrops. It is therefore necessary to develop a low costplanter that will reduce tedium and drudgery and enablesmall holder farmer to produce more foods and alsoenvironmental friendly. [11]In the past, various types of design have beendeveloped with different design approaches which havetheir advantages and disadvantages and also operationallimitations.[12]2. HistoryThe basic idea of soil scratching for weed control isancient and was done with hoes or mattocks for millenniabefore cultivators were developed. Cultivators wereoriginally drawn[13] by draft animals (such as horses,mules, or oxen) or were pushed or drawn by people. Inmodern commercial agriculture, the amount ofcultivating done for weed control has been greatlyreduced via use of herbicides instead.[7] However,509herbicides are not always desirable—for example,in organic farming.[15]The powered rotary hoe was invented by ArthurClifford Howard who, in 1912, began experimenting withrotary tillage on his father's farm at Gilgandra, NewSouth Wales, Australia. Initially using his father's steamtractor engine as a power source, he found that groundcould be mechanically tilled without soil-packingoccurring, as was the case with normal ploughing. Hisearliest designs threw the tilled soil sideways, until heimproved his invention by designing an L-shaped blademounted on widely spaced flanges fixed to a smalldiameter rotor. With fellow apprentice EverardMcCleary, he established a company to make hismachine, but plans were interrupted by World War I. In1919 Howard returned to Australia and resumed hisdesign work, patenting a design with 5 rotary hoecultivator blades and an internal combustion engine in1920.In March 1922, Howard formed the company AustralAuto Cultivators Pty Ltd, which later became known asHoward Auto Cultivators. It was based in North mead, asuburb of Sydney, from 1927. [14]Meanwhile, in North America during the1910s, tractors were evolving away from traction enginesized monsters toward smaller, lighter, more affordablemachines. The Fordson tractor especially had madetractors affordable and practical for small andmedium family farms for the first time in history.Cultivating was somewhat of an afterthought in theFordson's design, which reflected the fact that even justbringing practical motorized tractive power alone to thismarket segment was in itself a milestone. This left anopportunity for others to pursue better motorizedcultivating. Between 1915 and 1920, various inventorsand farm implement companies experimented with aclass of machines referred to as motor cultivators, whichwere simply modified horse-drawn shank-type cultivatorswith motors added for self-propulsion. This class ofmachines found limited market success. But by1921 International Harvester had combined motorizedcultivating with the other tasks of tractors (tractive power

International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematicsand belt work) to create the Farmall, the general-purposetractor tailored to cultivating that basically invented thecategory of row-crop tractors [27-30].In Australia, by the 1930s, Howard was finding itincreasingly difficult to meet a growing worldwidedemand for exports of his machines. He travelled tothe United Kingdom, founding the company Rotary HoesLtd in East Horndon, Essex, in July 1938. Branches ofthis new company subsequently opened in the UnitedStates of America, South Africa, Germany, France, Italy,Spain, Brazil, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. Itlater became the holding company for Howard RotavatorCo. Ltd. The Howard Group of companies was acquiredby the Danish Thrige Agro Group in 1985, and inDecember 2000 the Howard Group became a member ofKongskilde Industries of Soroe, Denmark.[8]When herbicidal weed control was firstwidely commercialized in the 1950s and [6]1960s, itplayed into that era's optimistic worldview in whichsciences such as chemistry would usher in a new age ofmodernity that would leave old-fashioned practices (suchas weed control via cultivators) in the dustbin of history.Thus herbicidal weed control was adopted very widely,and in some cases too heavily and hastily. In subsequentdecades, people overcame this initial imbalance and cameto realize that herbicidal weed control has limitationsand externalities, and it must be managed intelligently. Itis still widely used, and probably will continue to beindispensable to affordable food production worldwidefor the foreseeable future; but its wise managementincludes seeking alternate methods, such as thetraditional standby of mechanical cultivation, wherepractical.Special IssueFigure 1.2. A cultivator pulled by a tractor in Canada in19432.1 Different types of agricultural cultivators2.2.1 Primitive cultivating equipmenta. Plough: Tillage is the basic operation in farming. It isdone to create favorable conditions for seed placementand plant growth. This is done mainly with a plough.[7]A full history of the evolution of plough is not available.Farmers have been using plough since time immemorial.The primitive model might have been a crooked twig or abranch of a tree. The basic components of the plough area shoe, a share, a body, a handle and a beam.[8]The shoe and body make one piece in the case of ploughsbeing used in Kullu, Solan, Shimla, Sirmour, Lahaul &Spiti and Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh. The Jointbetween the shoe and the body is purposely avoided witha view to make the plough more rigid and robust, so thatthe implement can work on gravely soils with stones andother obstacles which are encountered during the courseof ploughing. [10]Figure 1.3Figure 1.1. 1949 Farmall C with C-254-A two-rowcultivator510b. Leveller: The plank of the leveller is made of anylocally available wood and shafts are generally made ofbamboo sticks. [9]Extra weight is added to all type ofplanks by placing stones on it or having person (s) rideon it. As the name suggests, levellers are used forlevelling land

International Journal of Pure and Applied MathematicsSpecial Issuea. Row crop cultivatorsThe main function of the row crop cultivator is weedcontrol between the rows of an established crop. Rowcrop cultivators are usually raised and lowered bya three-point hitch and the depth is controlled by gaugewheels.Sometimes referred to as sweep cultivators, thesecommonly have two center blades that cut weeds fromthe roots near the base of the crop and turn over soil,while two rear sweeps further outward than the centerblades deal with the center of the row, and can beanywhere from 1 to 36 rows wide[14]Figure 1.42.2.2 Industrial UseTo the extent that cultivating is done commercially today(such as in truck farming), it is usually poweredby tractors, especially row-crop tractors. Industrialcultivators can vary greatly in size and shape, from 10feet (3 m) to 80 feet (24 m) wide. Many are equippedwith hydraulic wings that fold up to make road traveleasier and safer. [12]Different types are used forpreparation of fields before planting, and for the controlof weeds between row crops. The cultivator may be animplement trailed after the tractor via a drawbar;mounted on the three-point hitch; or mounted on a framebeneath the tractor. Active cultivator implements aredriven by a power take-off shaft. [13]While mostcultivator are considered a secondary tillage implement,active cultivators are commonly used for primary tillagein lighter soils instead of plowing. The largest versionsavailable are about 6 m (20 ft) wide, and require a tractorwith an excess of 150 horsepower (110 kW) (PTO) todrive them. Field cultivators are used tocomplete tillage operationsinmanytypesofarable crop fields.[15] The main function of the fieldcultivator is to prepare a proper seedbed for the crop tobe planted into, to bury crop residue in the soil (helpingto warm the soil before planting), to control weeds, andto mix and incorporate the soil to ensure the growingcrop has enough water and nutrients to grow well duringthe growing season. The implement has many shanksmounted on the underside of a metal frame, and smallnarrow rods at the rear of the machine that smooth outthe soil surface for easier travel later when planting. Inmost field cultivators,[11] one-to-many hydrauliccylinders raise and lower the implement and control itsdepth.511Figure 1.5.Home made sweep. Notice the inner and outer"sweep" blades2.2.3 Garden CultivatorsSmall tilling equipment, used in small gardens such ashousehold gardens and small commercial gardens, canprovide both primary and secondary tillage. For example,a rotary tiller does both the "plowing" and the"harrowing", preparing a smooth, loose seedbed. It doesnot provide the row-wise weed control that cultivatorteeth would. For that task, there are single-person-pushable toothed cultivators.[18-20]a. Variants and trademarksRotary tillers are a type of cultivators. Rotary tillers arepopular with home gardeners who want large vegetablegardens. The garden may be tilled a few times beforeplanting each crop. Rotary tillers may be rented from toolrental centers for single-use applications, such as whenplanting grass .A small rotary hoe for domestic gardenswas known by the trademark Rototiller and another,made by the Howard Group, who produced a range ofrotary tillers, was known as the Rotavator.[21-26]