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1979 - 197911990 - 19964
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Subject: Farm, Machinery and Power × Author: KAU × End date: 2014 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Design, development and testing of a transplanting mechanism for conventional paddy seedling
    (Department of Farm power and Machinery, College of Agricultural Engineering,Ludhiyana, 1979) Cheeram Parambil, Muhammad; KAU; Verma, S R
    For over half of the world’s population, rice provides the main dietary source of energy and hence is one of the most important food materials. In the Far – East, where 90 per cent of world’s rice is grown, transplanting is widely practised due to numerous advantages offered by this method. Manual transplanting being a rather tedious operation, paddy transplanters had been developed and introduced in several countries notably Japan. Transplanters using conventional seedlings, however, are still receiving world wide attention as the commercial transplanters such as in use in Japan were costlier and employed special type of nursery raised with much care and skill. It was, therefore, decided to develop and test a new type of paddy transplanting mechanisms, with the following specific objectives: 1. To design and develop a mechanisms for transplanting conventional paddy seedlings 2. To test the transplanting mechanisms under laboratory conditions 3. To identify the important parameters of the mechanism and establish their range for optimal operation of the unit designed under objective (1). Accordingly, a paddy transplanting mechanisms was designed and developed. Attempts were made to overcome, as far as possible, the drawbacks of similar mechanisms already developed and reported. It was a single - row unit with provision to add more such units, as as to make a multi - row machine with a row - spacing of 20 cm. It was designed to transplant washed - root seedlings of 20 to 30 cm length at a hill to hill distances of 15 cm, with 2 to 3 seedlings/hill, to a depth of 3 to 4 cm, with not more than 5 per cent missing hills and 1 per cent seedling damage. Made mainly of M. S. and supported on a wooden float, the mechanism weighted 9.5 kg without seedlings. The important components of the mechanism were a seedling box to hold the seedlings, a seedling rake and seedling ejector for positive conveyance of the seedlings into the picker – jaws, a pair of picker sets mounted on the main shaft and actuated by a stationary cam to pick and release the seedlings, and a planting finger to plant the seedlings, laid horizontally on the ground after release, by the pickers. The main shaft was rotated by a ground wheel, as the mechanism was drawn forward by manual, animal or tractor power. In order to study the effect of reduced tip velocity of the pickers, another mechanism with four picker-sets, based on the same concept as the first one, but with proportionately larger dimensions of pickers and stationary cam, was also fabricated. The components like seedling box, rake, ejector and main shaft were retained with the same specifications as for the mechanism with two picker - sets. This mechanism weighed 11.75 kg against 9.5 kg for the first mechanism. The mechanism with two picker sets was designated as mechanism – A and that with four picker sets as mechanism – B for convenience. The two mechanisms were tested in the laboratory to compare their performance in respect of the plant hill missing, seedling damage, seedling distribution, average number of seedlings per hill and the power consumption. The tests were conducted with 4 rates of picking, i.e. 60, 90, 120 and 150 hills/min and 3 seedling heights i.e. 30, 25 and 20 cm for both mechanism A and B. The laboratory tests revealed that as the rate of picking increased from 60 to 150 hills/min, the missing hills increased from 4.09 to 16.8 per cent and 6.95 to 16.44 per cent; seedling damage from 0.8 to 1.43 per cent and 0.53 to 0.89 per cent; and power consumption from 13.6 to 33.6 and 17.1 to 42.1 watts for mechanisms A and B respectively. The average number of seedlings for both the mechanisms studied, decreased from 2.4 to 2.0 for 30 cm long seedlings as the rate of picking increased from 60 to 150 hills/min. However, upto a picking rate of 120 hills/min, the missing hills were 5.69 and 10.69 per cent for mechanisms A and B respectively, as against the desired 5 per cent missing hills. Seedling damage was less than 1 per cent and average number of seedlings/hill was above 2.00 in both the mechanisms with a variation of 0 to 8 seedlings/hill with a maximum standard deviation of 1.32. As the seedling height was reduced from 30 to 20 cm, the average number of seedlings/hill was found to increase from 2.36 to 2.55 at the rate of picking of 60 hills/min, 2.11 to 2.39 at 90 hills/min, 2.07 to 2.39 at 120 hills/min and 1.99 to 2.09 at 150 hills/min. At all seedling heights, upto 120 hills/min, the average number of seedling/hill was above 2.00, which was within the required limit. On comparing the performance of the two mechanisms, it was found that there was no difference between the two regarding their ability to pick the number of seedlings/hill. However, missing hills were more in mechanism B as compared to mechanism A. For a rate of picking, upto 120 hills/min mechanism A had acceptable missing hill of 5.69 per cent as against the recommended 5 per cent, while mechanism B, had 10.67 per cent which was considerably higher than the acceptable limit. The seedling damage, upto 120 hills/min rate of picking was under 1 per cent for both the mechanisms. Limited field trials revealed that the planting finger provided in the mechanism did not function satisfactorily and as such the plants were not properly planted. Deposition of mud on the stationary cam and seedling ejector was a problem noticed in the field. Consequently, the free rotation of the main shaft was hampered which in turn led to the skidding of the ground wheel. This called for further improvements in the design of the planting finger and groundwheel drive. It was concluded that mechanism A could pick the seedlings from the seedling box and release them satisfactorily on the ground upto a picking rate of 120 hills/min. The missing hills and seedling damage were within acceptable limits. Trouble – free working of the transplanter fitted with such mechanism would have a capacity of about 0.0216 ha/hr per row. The forward speed for the rate of picking viz. 120 hills/min comes to about 1.08 kmph. The mechanism could not plant the seedlings erect and improvement on planting finger was needed. About 125 man – hrs/ha were required to wash and load the seedlings and if a 4-row bullock drawn version could be used, it would require about 140 man-hrs/ha as against 200 to 250 man-hrs/ha in hand transplanting. This would justify further developmental efforts and refinement of the mechanism.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Design, development and evaluation of a power tiller operated bed former
    (Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1991) Shaji James, p; KAU; Sankaranarayanan, M R
    A power tiller operated Bed Former was developed and evaluated. The main components of the prototype unit of the power tiller operated Bed Former are, a main frame, two pairs of forming boards, a leveling board, a hitching unit and a depth control cum transport wheel. The equipment was found capable of forming seed beds of heights 22 cm, 18 cm and 15 cm at a width range of 60-64 cm. Heights of 18 cm and 15 cm were possible at width ranges of 73-75 cm and 80 – 81 cm. The draft of the implement ranges from 115.59 kgf to 169.69 kgf. The power utilization of the implement varies from 0.586 hp to 0.771 hp and the wheel slip between 46.76 per cent and 77.1 per cent. The mean effective field capacity of the implement is 0.0996 ha/hr and the mean field efficiency is 46.3 per cent. The total cost of production of the unit is Rs. 2000/- and the cost of operation per hectare is Rs. 777/-. The amount that can be saved by using the implement is Rs. 1473/- per hectare.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Fabrication and testing of a low cost flat plate collector-cum-storage solar water heater
    (Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1990) Lissy, Kirian; KAU; John Thomas, K
    The study was conducted with the objectives of developing and testing the Collector – cum storage type solar water heater to evaluate its performance. The collector – cum storage heater was consisted of a concrete tank with dimensions 150 x 70 x 10 cm and had a capacity of 100 litres of water. An absorber plate of size 152 x 72 cm was made of Aluminium sheet and was fixed into the tank. The front face of the absorber sheet was painted black to absorb maximum solar radiation. Glass cover was fixed at the top, leaving an optimum air gap of 40 mm. The heater was inclined to the latitude of Tavanur and was oriented to south for collecting maximum solar radiation. The solar water heater was filled daily at 8 am with fresh water. The performance of the water heater was observed from 20th October 1989 to 26th January 1990. Optimum inclination of the heater was found to be 100 52’ 30”. The water heater was found to attain a maximum outlet temperature of 520 C at 3 pm. Efficiency of the heater was calculated to be 51%. Solar intensity meter read a maximum solar flux of 1120 w/m2 at 12 O’clock in the month of October. The heater can supply 100 litres of hot water at 50 – 520 C at a very reasonable cost of Rs. 777.5. The cost per unit of thermal energy obtained with this water heater is 8 paise per kwh. There is a remarkable break – through in its cost and performance as compared to a conventional natural circulation type solar water heaters.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Studies on selected manually operated pumps
    (Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1990) Geeta Susan, Philip; KAU; John Thomas, K
    The study was conducted with the objective of evaluating hydraulic and ergonomic performance of some selected manually operated pumps viz. Kirloskar pump, Kumar Bharath pump, E.P. pump (Lift), E.P. pump (Force) and Bicycle operated diaphragm pump. A subject was selected for the study and his body surface area was calculated. Heart rate was taken as the measure of mechanical work load on the subject and he was calibrated for the basic task. From the calibration curve it was found that heart beat of the subject should not exceed 110 beats/min for the ergonomic safety. Pumps were tested against different suction heads by varying the position of the gate valve connected in the suction line. Discharge, speed of operation, time of operation and heart rate of the subject were noted. Hydraulic characteristics of the pumps were analysed by studying the discharge, time to deliver 100 1, number of strocks to deliver 100 1, and volumetric efficiency with variation in head. Ergonomic features were analysed by studying the variation of heart rate with head. Among the five pumps the volumetric efficiency of Kumar Bharath pump reduced below 75% beyond the head 6.9 m corresponding heads for the other pumps are 6.7 m for Kirloskar, 5.8 m for E.P. pump (Force) 5.7 m for E.P. pump (Lift) and 1.1 m for diaphragm pump. Time to deliver 100 1 and number of strokes to deliver 100 1 were highest in the case of diaphragm pump and least in Kumar Bharath and Kirloskar pumps. Taking hydraulic and ergonomic performance into consideration the following heads can be recommended for the pumps. Kumar Bharath 6.6 m, Kirloskar 5.25 m, E.P. pump (Lift) 5.7 m, E.P. pump (Force) 5.8 m and diaphragm pump 1.1 m corresponding discharge of the pumps are 0.23 1/s, 0.37 1/s, 0.3 1/s, 0.45 1/s, 0.45 1/s respectively.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development and testing of a large diameter pit digger for laterite terrain
    (Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1996) Preman, P S; KAU; Jippu, Jacob
    A large diameter pit digger was developed as an attachment to tractor for making large size pits in laterite suitable for planting saplings of trees especially for coconut palms. It was tested and evaluated at the Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engg. & Tech., Tavanur. The pit digger mainly consisted of a tractor rear-mounted twin-blade laterite cutter. The twin-blade laterite cutter essentially consisted of two circular blades, a main shaft, two cast iron hubs, two bearings and bearing blocks, power transmission elements, a main frame, two protective shields and one stopper. A 3 phase, 3-hp electric motor of 1440 rpm at a speed at a speed ratio of 2.1:1 was used for rotating the blades. By using a jib crane twin-blade laterite cutter was hitched to the three point hitch system of a tractor. Pit having approximately a square-horizontal cross-section and stepped or rebated downwards in four steps was made in laterite. Size of pit obtained was 1290 x 1190 mm at the top and 830 x 623 mm at the bottom with a total depth of 900 mm. The volume of pit was 0.914 m3. The capacity of machine was 2.24 pits of 0.914 m3 in a day of 8 h. For making a pit of 0.914 m3, the total electrical energy consumption was 4.111 kWh and the diesel fuel consumed by tractor was 18.5 L. The cost of digger excluding cost of motor, jib crane and tractor was Rs. 3800. The operating cost of the digger was Rs. 140.61 per hour and the cost of making one pit was Rs. 453.23. After taking in to account of the cost recovered due to the 41 laterite blocks obtained while making the pit, the net cost of making a pit was Rs. 207.12.