• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.369-378
• /
• 2000

The purpose of this study is to developed high-efficient rotary tillage system for a power tiller by improving the rotary blade. A kind of the rotary blade with single-edged blade(DS) was developed that requires lower tillage energy than conventional double-edged blade(CD) on the design theory for Japanese rotary blade. In order to find out the tillage characteristics between the single-edged blade and the double-edged blade for power tiller, experiments were performed in soil-bins which were filled up clay loam, loam and sandy loam, and then analyzed the effects of the factors such as soil texture, travelling speed, rotational speed, and tillage depth to each of the blades. And field tests were carried out to compare tillage performances of the two blades using rotary cultivator driven by conventional power tiller. The results of this study were summarized as follows; 1) On the soil bin experiment, it was found that tillage torque of the single-edged blade was less than the ones of the double-edged blade. The decreasing ratios of maximum tillage torque of the single-edged blade to the ones of the double-edged blade were 1 to 8% at clay loam, 5 to 20% at loam and 9 to 31% at sandy loam, respectively. 2) By the field tests, that the tillage performances with the single-edged blade compared with the double-edged blade was improved about 19% in field capacity, about 34% in fuel consumption, and 12.5% in soil breaking ratio. Furthermore, the fluctuation of engine speed, the variation of exhaust gas temperature, and the amount of soil clogging on the blade and straw wound on the rotary shaft showed lower values with the developed blade than the conventional blade. So, it may be concluded that tillage performance by the developed single-edged blade was improved compared with the one by the conventional double-edged blade.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.9-20
• /
• 2004

On the basis of design theory of soil inversion, two types of moldboard plow with secondary soil mover was designed and constructed to invert furrow slice at same position with furrow bottom. A series of soil bin experiment was carried to investigate the performance of prototypes. First prototype of new concept plow showed two kinds of problems during the preliminary experiment. For the plowing depth of 6cut the prototype did not invert the furrow slice, instead it just cut furrow bottom and the furrow slice returned to the original position. For the plowing depth of 8cm, there was soil clogging problem at the rear part of plow. From the above results it was concluded that the first prototype can not be used for the inversion of furrow slice at same position with furrow bottom. Second prototype could invert furrow slice at the same position with furrow bottom, but the performance was affected by soil moisture content soil hardness and plowing speed very much. For the higher soil moisture content, for the higher soil hardness and higher plowing speed, the prototype showed higher soil inversion performance. For the second prototype the inversion ratio was almost 100%, inversion angle was in the range of 90 to 100 degree and side displacement was less than 4 cm. But the furrow slice was not continuous, it was cut in the length of 30 to 40 cm. The reason why the furrow slice was cut in that length is blamed for the design of moldboard surface. The specific draft of prototype was in the range of 37.24 kN/㎡ to 42.14 kN/㎡ this value is a little higher than that of the conventional plow, or from 30.38 kN/㎡ to 33.32 kN/㎡. But the difference was not so big. The inversion performance of the second prototype for the field experiment was much better than that of soil bin experiment due to the better soil and operational conditions. Sticky and compacted soil conditions, and higher plowing speed was suitable for the plowing operation of the second prototype