• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.127-136
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• 1997

This study was accomplished to develop a pneumatic granular applicator that can be attached to the conventional ride-on rice transplanter. Operating conditions of a metering device for the applicator were determined so as to obtain the required discharge rate of granules for field application. The shape and size of diffuser was selected for the applicator and the spacing between diffusers on a boom and the boom height were determined as an optimal application condition for uniform distribution. The diffuser spacing of 1m for the fertilizer and the diffuser spacing of 0.8m for the pesticide at the boom height over 0.8m were acceptable.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.427-428
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• 2010

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2005.08a
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• pp.188-189
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• 2005

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.4 s.117
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• pp.305-314
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• 2006

Precision farming has been known as an environment friendly farming technology. This study was conducted to develop a variable-rate granule fertilizer applicator as an attempt for introducing the precision farming technologies to rice cultivation in Korea. In this paper, concept design process and manufacturing of prototype variable rate granule applicator was reported. For concept design, some design guide lines were selected. Based on the design guide line and some engineering knowledge, concept design was conducted. The designed prototype granule applicator was mounted at the rear of riding type cultivator for paddy field and had a 10m wide boom structure with pneumatic conveying and application system as well as 1GPS receiver, 1 granule hopper, 12 blow heads, 2 metering devices and 1 controller. The fertilizer applicator had 942 ka of weight, 740m of ground clearance and 1,117mm of center of gravity from the ground. The applicator was designed to be able to $34{\sim}428kg/ha$ of granule at $0.2{\sim}0.8m/s$ of fertilizer working speed.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.6 s.119
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• pp.474-481
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• 2006

In this paper, a new type blow head was developed and pneumatic application system was evaluated. The blow head had one operating factor, inserting length of collecting plate, that was directly related to discharge rate and application pattern. To determine Proper blow head arrangement and application height, a blow head set was tested. Three-way ANOVA was conducted to investigate relationships between CV value, the discharge rate and inserting length of collecting plate. The discharge rate and inserting length of collecting plate were statistically significant at p=0.01, affecting uniformity of application pattern. The best CV value among the application tests was 23.3% when the application rate and application height was 23.5 g/sec and 80 cm respectively. The worst CV value was 63.3% in 111.4 g/sec. Therefore, it is necessary to increase number of blow head in a section of the boom in improve application uniformity.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.5 s.118
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• pp.389-394
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• 2006

The characteristic of moisture absorption of granular fertilizer was measured at several different opening sizes on the top cover of a hopper in a humid weather. The size of the opening was to represent the degree of looseness of sealing of the top cover of the hopper. The application distribution was characterized by the scattering distance of granular fertilizer with different degree of moisture absorption in a pneumatic granular fertilizer applicator. The moisture absorption rates were 12.92 and 12.26 mg of moisture an hour for one gram of each granular fertilizers of NPK 22-12-12 and 21-17-17, respectively. The moisture absorption increased linearly as the opening size increased. The median value of the scattering distance distribution decreased with time of absorption, however, it decreased very slowly after three hours of absorption.