応用機械工学ジャーナル

概要

Design of Rotary Tiller's Blade Using Specific Work Method (SWM)

Mandal S, Bhattacharyya B and Mukherjee S

Tillage is an operation performed to obtain a desirable soil structure for a seedbed. A granular structure is desirable to allow rapid infiltration and good retention of rainfall, to provide adequate air capacity and exchange within the soil and to minimize resistance to root penetration. Rotary tiller or rotavator (derived from rotary cultivator) is a tillage machine designed for preparing land by breaking the soil with the help of rotating blades suitable for sowing seeds (without overturning of the soil). Nowadays, utilization of rotary tillers has been increased in agricultural applications because of simple structure and high efficiency. However in a rotary tiller, blades are the main critical parts which engaged with soil to prepare the land. These blades interact with soil in a different way than normal plows that are subjected to impact load and high friction which ultimately creates unbalancing and non-uniform forces on the rotary tiller. This result wears in the blades. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the design of blade so that wear will minimum and thereby enhanced the service life. The present research has dealt with design of “L” type blade for tractor drawn Rotary tiller or Rotavator using Specific Work Method (SWM).