AN AUGER TINE INTER FURROW CROP CULTIVATOR (original) (raw)

2011, The 18th. Annual Conference of the Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering

The main aim of this research was to develop and test an implement for inter furrow cultivation. The unit is supposed to uproot and kill weeds at the early stage of the crop growth along the furrow sides and avoid crop seedlings damage. The unit also should open furrows to facilitate easy irrigation. The cultivator was fabricated and tested in the Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Assiut. The preliminary experiments show that the prototype of the cultivator was heavy and required high power to move. The unit was modified to improve power transmission. The main power shaft was developed to a telescopic shaft to permit adjusting the machine cultivation width according to furrow width. The ratio of the auger tine tip linear speed to the forward speed (λ) is considered one of the important parameters of testing the unit. The value of λ 2 = 4.14 showed the most efficient adjustment. The most efficient results also were achieved at cultivation depth 6 cm. the performance of the prototype equipped with ridger was improved because the ridger opens the furrow better for irrigation. The well fabricated prototype may cultivate 0.15 to 0.22 fed/h at 75 % cultivator efficiency. INTRDODUCTION echanical weed control is the main operation used for weed control. The operation reduces the drudgery involved with manual hoeing. Mechanical method requires both accurate transverse and longitudinal positional control to avoid crop damage. So far, commercial automated mechanical methods are not spread for operation in the inter-row area (Melander et al., 2005). A few research projects, however, have identified prospective technologies that would allow highly selective mechanical weed control within crop rows 1 Prof. and head of Ag. Eng. Dep., Fac. of Ag., AL-Azhar U. Assiut. 2 Assoc. Prof., Ag. Eng. Dep., Fac. of Ag., AL-Azhar U. Assiut. 3 Prof., Ag. Eng., Ag. Res. Cen., Ag. Eng. Res. Institute. 4 Demonstrator, Ag. Eng. Dep., Fac. of Ag., AL-Azhar U. Assiut. M Agricultural engineering programs as related to employment requirements: 430-440