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Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola
Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola was established on 20th October, 1969 with its head-quarter at Akola. This Agricultural University was named after the illustrious son of Vidarbha Dr. Panjabrao (alias Bhausaheb) Deshmukh, who was the Minister for Agriculture,Govt. of India. The jurisdiction of this university is spread over the eleven districts of Vidarbha. According to the University Act 1983 (of the Government of Maharashtra), the University is entrusted with the responsibility of agricultural education, research and extension education alongwith breeder and foundation seed programme.
The University has its main campus at Akola. The instructional programmes at main campus are spread over in 5 Colleges namely, College of Agriculture, College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, College of Forestry, College of Horticulture and Post Graduate Institute. At this campus 4 degree programmes namely B.Sc.(Agri.) B.Sc. (Hort.), B.Sc. (Forestry) and B.Tech. (Ag. Engg.) , two Master’s Degree Programmes viz. M.Sc.(Agri.) and M.Tech. (Agri.Engg.) and Doctoral Degree Programmes in the faculties of Agriculture and Agril. Engineering are offered.
The University has its sub-campus at Nagpur with constituent College, College of Agriculture which offers B.Sc.(Agri.) and M.Sc.(Agri.) degree programmes. The Nagpur Campus is accomplished with a garden, surrounded by its natural beauty and a well established Zoo which attract the general public and visitors to the city. A separate botanic Garden is being maintained on 22 hectares with a green house for the benefit of research workers.
In addition there are 2 affiliated grant-in-aid colleges and 14 private non-grant-in-aid colleges under the umbrella of this University
A Central Research Station is situated at the main Campus which caters to the need of research projects undertaken by Crop Scientists of the principle crops of the region are Cotton, Sorghum, Oilseeds and Pulses.
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ThesisItem Open Access Citation : KASAL, YUVRAJ GOPINATH. (2017). Development of liquid fertilizer application system for planting mechanism. Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidhyapeeth, Ph. D. 2017, xii, 128p. (Unpublished).(Dr.Panjabrao Deshmuksh Krishi Vidyapeet,Akola, 2017-10-23) 1. Name of Author BHANGARE, SANJAY CHANDRAKANT; 2. Name of Advisor Thakare, Dr. S. H.9. Agrotags Agricultural Engineering, Equipment, Pest control equipment, Sprayer Mechanization, Tractor power, Crop, Fruit crop, Orchard crop, High-density planting system, Tree volume, Leaf area, Spray volume, Centrifugal blower, Air assisted sprayer, Leaf density, Canopy volume, Impeller, Blade, Casing, Forward curved blade, Wooden pattern, Wind tunnel assembly, Centrifugal blower, Frame, Pump, Pesticide tank, Nozzle and spray delivery hoses, Power transmission unit, Control panel,ThesisItem Open Access DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF MINI COMBINE HARVESTER.(Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra., 2022-09-12) KARHALE, SANDIP SHAMRAO.; Thakare, Dr. S. H.The present investigation was carried out during Kharif 2019 and 2020 on “Development and Testing of Mini Combine Harvester” at the Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Post Graduate Institute, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola (M.S.). The results indicated that, Paddy is one of the most important crops for food security in India, contributing significantly towards providing food and livelihood for 130 million people. The area under paddy cultivation in India is around 44 million ha with production of 105 million tons in 2019. As per Bureau of Indian Standards, combine-harvester-thresher popularly known as combine harvester is defined as a machine designed for harvesting, threshing, separating, cleaning, collecting and unloading grain while moving through the standing crop. Mini combines consist of a cutting mechanism attached to a travelling thresher. The ultimate purpose of any combine harvester equipment is to recover the grain, free from plant residue, with a minimum of grain loss. The harvester should have facilities for varying speeds of different working components like machine forward speed, threshing cylinder speed, blower speed and speeds of header unit which includes reel cutter bar speeds depending upon the type of crop and field conditions. In mini combine harvester an ordinary farm tractor was used to power the combine harvester, which is attached to one side and has the cutting mechanism at the front. A suitable size of tractor was selected to match the power and speed requirements of different working components of machine as the power requirement for harvesting and threshing of different crops may vary due to type of crop and its variety, grain-straw ratio, machine size and design. A prototype of mini combine harvester for harvesting of selected varieties of paddy crops has been developed and fabricated by using the designed parameters of functional components viz., reel speed, cutter bar speed, feed rates of platform auger, feeder conveyor, type of threshing cylinder and its speed, blower and power transmission system. A newly developed mini combine harvester performs four major operations- it cuts the crop, conveys the harvested crops to threshing unit or beats the panicle from the plants, separates the grains from the straw and cleaned paddy grains collected in collection tank. The essential parts of mini combine harvester are cutting unit, header assembly unit, platform assembly, feeder conveyor, thresher assembly and blower assembly. These units were mounted on a tractor with provision for mounting a thresher. The evaluation of combine harvester was carried out at selected parameters by maintaining the forward speed of 3.5, 4.0 and 4.5 km h-1. The combine harvester was tested for a period of six hours continuously and the performance was evaluated. The performance was analyzed in terms of threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, broken percentage, blown off grains, unthreshed grains and header loss for the tested varieties. Similarly evaluation trials were conducted for paddy varieties by maintaining forward speed. This mini combine harvester was developed and tested for machine parameters like cylinder speed (14, 15 and 16 m s-1), forward speed (3.5, 4.0 and 4.5 km h-1) and crop parameter viz., grain moisture content (18 to 22 %) were studied in relation to threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency and total grain losses for fine and coarse paddy varieties. Moisture content of 18 %, cylinder speed of 15 m s-1 and forward speed of 4.0 km h-1 was found satisfactory for harvesting of fine paddy variety PKV-HMT and PKV-TILAK. Moisture content of 18 %, cylinder speed of 16 m s-1 and forward speed of 4.5 km h-1 was found satisfactory for harvesting of coarse paddy variety PKV- KISAN and PKV- KHAMANG. Moisture content was the most important factor influencing threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency and total grain losses followed by cylinder speed and forward speed in fine and coarse varieties. In fine paddy varieties, the average threshing efficiency varied from 99.78 to 99.82 %, whereas cleaning efficiency varied from 99.15 to 99.17 %. The pre harvest losses varied from 30.58 to 30.80 kg ha-1. In coarse paddy varieties the average threshing efficiency varied 99.73 to 99.64 %, whereas cleaning efficiency varied from 98.95 to 99.14 %. The pre harvest losses varied from 29.10 to 29.20 kg ha-1. In fine varieties the total losses varied from 1.43 to 1.64 % and 1.34 to 1.45 % in coarse paddy varieties at said parameters. The cost of operation of the developed combine harvester was found to be Rs. 2303 per ha against Rs. 5400 per ha required for harvesting and threshing of one ha area by conventional method. The breakeven point and payback period of thresher was 340 hours per annum and 3.22 years respectively. The B:C ratio was found to be 1.62 in paddy harvesting. The mini combine harvester was found economical and viable because of negligible breakage losses and less break- even point, resulted more beneficial for small and medium paddy farmers.ThesisItem Open Access DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF GROUNDNUT HARVESTER.(Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra., 2021-10-28) NIKAM, MAHESH DAMODHAR.; Thakare, Dr. S. K.The study entitled “Development and performance evaluation of groundnut harvester” was carried out with the main objective to determine the optimum design and operational parameters of the groundnut harvester. Various crop parameters and soil parameters were measured during the study. The measured values were used for deciding the dimensions of various working components such as digging unit, conveying unit, depth of digging etc. The developed harvester was evaluated in the laboratory as well as in the field. The laboratory trials were conducted at the Department of Farm Power and Machinery and field trials were conducted in the field of the Department of Botany, Dr. P.D.K.V., Akola. The laboratory setup was developed having provision for changing the forward speed, conveyor speed, conveyor angle, drum type and drum speed. The laboratory setup consists of laboratory evaluation unit of groundnut harvester, belt conveyor platform, stripping drum, crop holder, electric motor, variable frequency drive, belt pulley etc. The groundnut harvesting mechanism was evaluated in laboratory at different combination of selected variables namely, forward speed, conveyor angle, conveyor speed, drum type and drum speed. The effect of forward speed (2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 km/h), conveyor angle (25°, 30° and 35°) and conveyor speed (2.5, 3 and 3.5 km/h) on picking efficiency while influence of conveyor angle (25°, 30° and 35°) and conveyor speed (2.5, 3 and 3.5 km/h) on plant conveying efficiency of the groundnut harvesting mechanism was studied. Similarly, the effect of three types of stripping drum (Peg, Rubber flap and Loop type) at three drum speed (200, 300 and 400 rpm) was studied with reference to pod stripping efficiency, un-stripped pod loss and pod damage. The results obtained from laboratory evaluation were statistically analysed by using factorial completely randomize design (FCRD) and optimum combinations of variables was determined. The optimum combination of variables that gives maximum picking and conveying efficiency was at forward speed of 2.5 km/h, conveyor speed 2.5 km/h and conveyor angle 25°. Similarly, the loop type drum at drum speed 400 rpm gives highest stripping efficiency, medium pod damage and lowest un-striped pod loss. Based on the optimum values obtained in the laboratory evaluation, a prototype was developed. The prototype was evaluated in the field for its performance and economics of the groundnut harvester was compared with manual method of groundnut harvesting. The developed prototype was evaluated in groundnut variety TAG-24. The field evaluation results showed that the average digging efficiency, picking efficiency and conveying efficiency of the harvester was 98.38 per cent, 90.32 per cent and 96.73 per cent, respectively. The average operating width and depth of the operation was observed as 348.7 mm and 130 mm, respectively and average pod damage was recorded as 4.77 per cent. The average effective field capacity and field efficiency of the prototype groundnut harvester was 0.059 ha/h and 66.67 per cent, respectively at optimum combinations of variables while the theoretical field capacity was observed 0.088 ha/h. The cost of operation of the developed groundnut harvester was Rs. 565.37 per hour and Rs. 9583 per hectare. The groundnut harvester saves 94.87 per cent labour and 89.13 per cent total man hours of operation as compared to manual method of groundnut harvesting.ThesisItem Open Access DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL TRACTOR DRAWN TWO ROW BELT TYPE COTTON PLANTER.(Dr. Punjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra., 2021-02-26) GAJAKOS, AVINASH VITHAL.; THAKARE, Dr. S. H.The dibbling of cotton seeds is done by labors in squatting posture which makes this operation laborious and drudgerious. Manual dibbling is a time consuming operation requiring about 200-250 man hours per hectare area and the cost involved is about 5000-6000/- Rs per hectare. In case of rainfed agriculture, to complete the sowing operation in limited time period is of great importance from further proper crop growth point of view. This creates high demand of labors during peak sowing season and the obvious labor shortages, resulting in higher demand of wages by the labor. In this study the efforts are made to develop a two row cotton planter with belt type metering mechanism to achieve the precision metering of the seeds. In order to develop the planter the cotton hybrids selected for the study were NHH-44BGII, PKV Hy-2 BGII and ANKUR 4252 BGII. The plant spacing was selected as 90 x 45 cm. The laboratory testing of the developed metering mechanism was done on the sticky belt set up. The independent parameters selected were planter travel speed and the seed belt inclination angle. The three levels of each parameter were selected. The levels of travel speed were 2.5 km/h, 3.0 km/h and 3.5 km/h. The levels of seed belt inclination angle selected were 17 degrees, 34 degrees and 45 degrees. The dependant parameters were missing index, multiple index, quality feed index and uniformity index which are the indicators of the planter performance. From the laboratory trials conducted it was found that at forward speed of 3.0 km/hspeed and seed belt inclination angle of 34 degrees, the developed belt type seed metering mechanism gave better performance in terms of missing index, multiple index, quality feed index and uniformity index. The average germination percentage of the seeds was found to be 93.66 percent and seed damage percentage was 1.5 percent. Both the Missing index and Multiple index was lowest at the 3.0 km/hand 34 degree combination of forward speed and seed belt inclination angle combination. The lowest value of missing index was found to be 2.66 per cent for PKV Hy-2 BGII hybrid. Whereas the lowest value of multiple index was found to be 4.67 per cent for NHH-44 BGII hybrid. The quality feed index was highest at 3 km/hand 34 degrees combination of forward speed and seed belt inclination angle combination. It found maximum i.e. 92.00 per cent for NHH-44 BGII hybrid. The uniformity index was found highest i.e. 78.80 per cent at 3.00 km/h travel and 34 degrees seed belt inclination angle combination for NHH-44 BGII hybrid. It was found maximum at 3.0 km/h forward speed and 34 degree Inclination of seed belt. The field trials were conducted at forward speed of 3.0 km/hspeed and 34 degree angle of seed belt inclination which was optimized during field trials. During field trials the average minimum values of missing index, multiple index, was found as 5.55 and 6.66 per cent respectively. Whereas maximum values of quality feed index and uniformity index was observed to be 87.77 and 72.17 per cent respectively. The average effective field capacity of the planter was found as 0.43 ha/h. Time required to cover one hectare was found to be 2.32 hours. The average cost of operation was found to be 349.79 Rs/h and 771.0 Rs/ha. There is 88.40 per cent saving in labour requirement and 79.41 per cent saving in cost of operation over traditional method of sowing of cotton crop.ThesisItem Open Access DEVELOPMENT OF BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLE SPRAYER.(Dr. Punjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra., 2021-02-19) KARALE, DHIRAJ SADASHIVRAO.; THAKARE, Dr. S. H.Application of chemical pesticides is one of the most important processes in agricultural production, but also one of the most dangerous agricultural operations. Spraying has a very important role to play to reduce the harvest losses and improving productivity. To reduce the dependency on the fossil fuels a low-cost Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) sprayer was developed in the present investigation which has a boom sprayer attachment and battery electric vehicle as a prime mover. The developed system has high uniformity of spray, the spray distribution along with the swath and easy to adjust i.e., height of boom over a target crops a ladder type arrangement is provided for better performance. A BEV sprayer was developed in the Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr. PDKV Akola with an objective to perform satisfactory spraying operation in the field crops to improving the chemical efficiency and to reduce the labor cost by promoting the green energy. FEM analysis of chassis by using ANSYS software and 3D computer added design software’s like CATIA was found suitable to make a necessary assumption and changes in the conceptual design phase which helps to reduces the repetitive fabrication work and time. The battery electric vehicle sprayer was designed with an aim to traversing between the row crops of 30, 45 and 60 cm spacing or row width more than 90 cm. Hence, the wheels, motor, battery and caster wheel are located in the narrow drive unit. The newly design BEV sprayer has an overall dimension (L X B X H) of 1560 x 6000 x 1020 mm with 6 m long boom while in rod transport with the folded boom it was 1560 x 2000 x 1060 mm. It was observed that an electric motor of 1 kW, 48 V, BLDC capable to propelled the vehicle as it developed a 99 N-m torque than the required (68 N-m) with the design gear ratio of 25:1. The design pack of batteries has 23 kW which is remains 10 kW after eliminating the values of Peurkrts effect and 80 per cent of discharge rate. During the running in test, it was noticed that 443.85 Wh/km is the maximum power requirement of the BEV sprayer at speed of 3.5 km/h on loaded condition with a continuous work of 7 hours. The developed BEV sprayer was tested in the laboratory and on the experimental field for optimization of the operating parameters for Greengram crop. After optimizing the operational parameters, the field tests were carried on such optimized parameters for determining the techno-economic feasibility of the BEV sprayer. The nozzles with 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm and 1.0 mm orifice size were tested in the lab at 3 kg/cm2 pressure settings for verifying the feasibility with the relevant IS test code. All three nozzles were observed feasible to used and it was observed that the discharge rate to be increase with increases in orifice size and pressure. All three nozzles were tested in the laboratory on Spraytech Digital Droplet Analyzer for its droplet characterization for its categorization on the basis of spray with the relevant IS test code. It was observed that the droplet size increases with the increase in orifice size and decrease in the concentration of fine to course spray. All three produces the maximum droplet concentration between 100 to 400 µm. Hence, on the basis of droplet size, the sprayer can be categorized as fine spray. To deliver the toxic insecticide dosage and to maximize the required deposition at the target droplet size, use of appropriate nozzles along with correct calibration is important. Three commercially available hollow cone nozzles adoptable for BEV sprayer with 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm and 1.0 mm orifice size were selected for study and their characteristics were evaluated to find their suitability for insecticide spray in Greengram (Vigna Radiata (L.) Wilczek) crop. An experimental field set-up was developed to study the droplet size distribution as influenced by the crop, machine and operational parameters. The forward speed studied for spray nozzles were 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 km/h. All the three nozzles were tested at the three operating pressures of 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 kg/cm2 with three orifice diameters of 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm, 1.0 mm in the experimental field tests. The height of the nozzle was maintained at 15 inches (381mm) above the target crop. The droplet sizes at different distances were collected by using 5 per cent concentration of methylene blue dye droplet impression on the water sensitive papers. The droplet images were scanned and analyzed using the DepositScan software. An experimental optimization is carried out using Design Expert 11.0 version software for Response Surface Methodology to analyze the combined effect of the factors at levels chosen on the independent variables viz., orifice diameter, forward speed, and operating pressure. Regression models were arrived for predicting the NMD, VMD and UC, DD and LAC in terms of the orifice diameter, forward speed and operating pressure. The RSM results showed that among linear effects of orifice size of the nozzle and operating pressure had a significant effect on VMD at 1 per cent level of significance followed by the speed in quadratic effect. The high value of coefficient of determination R2= 0.9891 obtained for response variable indicated that the developed model for VMD accounted for and adequately explained 98.91 per cent of the total variation. Similarly, the quadratic effect of orifice size and pressure on the NMD indicates that increasing the value of variable initially increases response up to certain level of variable however further increases in the level of variable decreases the value of response (R2= 9672). The RSM results showed that linear effect speed and pressure had significant effect on UC followed by the orifice size. The interaction effect of orifice size of nozzle and operating pressure is more than the speed and pressure (R2=0.9733). In the case of DD, the RSM results (R2=0.9561) showed that the linear effect of orifice size had a significant effect on droplet density followed by the speed. In the case of LAC, the results showed that linear effect of office size had significant effect of followed by the speed (R2=0.8286). The RSM was applied to find the best fitted model and the optimization level of study factor in which the amount of value fits. The RSM results showed that the sprayer satisfactorily performed with 0.8 mm orifice size nozzle on 3.0 kg/cm2 pressure and at a forward speed of 2.5 km/h for the Greengram crop. After optimization the performance parameter of the sprayer was tested in the Greengram field at CRS, Dr. PDKV Akola. During the field test, it was observed that the effective field capacity of the sprayer was 1.09 ha/h with field efficiency of 79.81 per cent. It was noticed that a two-wheel platform with caster wheel arrangement has ability to easy turning over the headland. The average application rate of the spray mixture was observed as 150.33 l/ha. On the basis of total volume of spray mixture applied, sprayer can be categorized as low volume sprayer. Initially developed BEV spraying machine was tested with the help of two workers hence the average cost of operation was found to be 131 Rs. /ha. For spraying and propelling of the BEV sprayer, the current requirement was observed as 42.6 A from which the power requirement was calculated as 443.85 W/km. From this, it was calculated that the BEV sprayer can work up to 7 h on 2.5 km/h forward speed with a continuous operation on full charging of the batteries. From the experimentation, it was observed that the sprayer is capable to satisfactory spray the liquid at top, middle and bottom position of leaves at upper and lower side. During the techno-economic feasibility of the BEV sprayer the payback period was analyzed to be 4.13 yrs of the machine operation. It means that the BEV spraying machine investment would pay for itself after that period. The result also shows that the average rate of return on investment was found 1.53 that is higher than unity, which is a profitable venture for an entrepreneur. As can be seen from results that the BCR, PBP, BEP, was estimated as 1.53, 4.13 yrs., and 105.21 ha/yr respectively that are above their accepting range such as BCR>1, PBPannual interest rate, and NPV>zero these results support that investments on BEV spraying machinery using custom hire service method in the study area is attractive and profitable for a small land holder farmer.ThesisItem Open Access DEVELOPMENT OF BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLE SPRAYER.(Dr. Punjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra., 2021-02-02) KARALE, DHIRAJ SADASHIVRAO.; THAKARE, Dr. S. H.Application of chemical pesticides is one of the most important processes in agricultural production, but also one of the most dangerous agricultural operations. Spraying has a very important role to play to reduce the harvest losses and improving productivity. To reduce the dependency on the fossil fuels a low-cost Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) sprayer was developed in the present investigation which has a boom sprayer attachment and battery electric vehicle as a prime mover. The developed system has high uniformity of spray, the spray distribution along with the swath and easy to adjust i.e., height of boom over a target crops a ladder type arrangement is provided for better performance. A BEV sprayer was developed in the Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Dr. PDKV Akola with an objective to perform satisfactory spraying operation in the field crops to improving the chemical efficiency and to reduce the labor cost by promoting the green energy. FEM analysis of chassis by using ANSYS software and 3D computer added design software’s like CATIA was found suitable to make a necessary assumption and changes in the conceptual design phase which helps to reduces the repetitive fabrication work and time. The battery electric vehicle sprayer was designed with an aim to traversing between the row crops of 30, 45 and 60 cm spacing or row width more than 90 cm. Hence, the wheels, motor, battery and caster wheel are located in the narrow drive unit. The newly design BEV sprayer has an overall dimension (L X B X H) of 1560 x 6000 x 1020 mm with 6 m long boom while in rod transport with the folded boom it was 1560 x 2000 x 1060 mm. It was observed that an electric motor of 1 kW, 48 V, BLDC capable to propelled the vehicle as it developed a 99 N-m torque than the required (68 N-m) with the design gear ratio of 25:1. The design pack of batteries has 23 kW which is remains 10 kW after eliminating the values of Peurkrts effect and 80 per cent of discharge rate. During the running in test, it was noticed that 443.85 Wh/km is the maximum power requirement of the BEV sprayer at speed of 3.5 km/h on loaded condition with a continuous work of 7 hours. The developed BEV sprayer was tested in the laboratory and on the experimental field for optimization of the operating parameters for Greengram crop. After optimizing the operational parameters, the field tests were carried on such optimized parameters for determining the techno-economic feasibility of the BEV sprayer. The nozzles with 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm and 1.0 mm orifice size were tested in the lab at 3 kg/cm2 pressure settings for verifying the feasibility with the relevant IS test code. All three nozzles were observed feasible to used and it was observed that the discharge rate to be increase with increases in orifice size and pressure. All three nozzles were tested in the laboratory on Spraytech Digital Droplet Analyzer for its droplet characterization for its categorization on the basis of spray with the relevant IS test code. It was observed that the droplet size increases with the increase in orifice size and decrease in the concentration of fine to course spray. All three produces the maximum droplet concentration between 100 to 400 µm. Hence, on the basis of droplet size, the sprayer can be categorized as fine spray.ThesisItem Open Access ERGONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF MANUALLY OPERATED ROTARY MAIZE SHELLER.(Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra., 2019-10-11) GEDAM, KANCHAN VASANTRAO.; Thakare, Dr. S. K.Maize or corn (Zea mays L.) is a plant belonging to the family of grasses (Poaceae) which is most important cereal crop after wheat and rice produced throughout the country. From the carry out survey of existing practices of maize shelling, observed that the procedure of shelling maize is very difficult, and maize shelling efficiency is very low, these problems are solved by hand operated rotary maize sheller. Its work output depends on the machine as well as on the operator. So, for overcoming these problems develop user-friendly and safe mechanism of pedal operated for existing maize sheller with reduced drudgery and minimum seed damage. Therefore, the ergonomic study of maize shelling was felt very necessary. The present research work was carried out with the main objective so as to increase the human-machine system efficiency and also improve the operator’s health and able to operated with great efficiency, accuracy and safety. So, in view to focuses on energy considerations which arise from the physiological and psychophysical responses studied considering pedal length, seat height, backrest height with three different levels on modified pedal mechanism. The interpretation of the results of the study leads to the following major conclusions. Physiological and psychophysical responses were affected by pedal mechanism and minimum values were observed with pedal length 180 mm, sitting height 710 mm and backrest height 400 mm, respectively. The lowest working heart rate, increase in heart rate and oxygen consumption rate were observed to be 101.67 beats min -1, 27.5 beats min -1 and 0.34 lit min-1, respectively whereas body-part discomfort score, overall discomfort score and percentage of maximum oxygen consumption rate were found to be 7, 2.88 and 19.62 %, respectively. However cardiac cost of operation and energy expenditure rate was found to be 9.5 beats kg-1 and 8.81kJ min-1, respectively and highest output capacity i.e. 220 kg h-1 was obtained at same combination. So, working heart rate in existing maize sheller in “very heavy” and in modified maize sheller categorized in “moderately heavy”. It may be concluded that the pedal mechanism can be successfully used as an interface between the human worker and a hand rotary type machine for getting more output from the machine with less effort and fatigue as compare to existing maize sheller.ThesisItem Open Access STUDIES ON WEAR BEHAVIOUR OF STEELS USED FOR CROP CUTTING BLADES IN AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY(Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra., 2020-01-02) BASTEWAD, TULSHIDAS BALIRAM.; Thakare, Dr. S. H.Steel is a widely used material for most of the engineering applications not only because of its availability in market but also because of its attaining a wide range of properties, such as hardness, strength, toughness, wear resistance etc., which is not found in any other family of materials ( Agrawal, 1988). Steel is used basically in two ways (i.e. un-treated and treated) for various applications. Untreated steels have low level of mechanical and tribological properties whereas treated steels with proper combinations of soaking time, austenitizing temperature and transformation rate provide desired properties as per applications/use. The treated steels are single, dual and multiple phasic. Properties of dual phase steels, such as ferrite – martensite, suit the requirement of agricultural implements as it possess good combination of ductility, strength, toughness and better deformability than other high strength steels (Jha,et al. 2003). These steels exhibit other inherent specific material properties like, corrosion, wear resistance and machinability. Therefore, high strength low alloy dual phase steels are typically used in different engineering applications like power generation equipments, railways, pressure vessels, automobiles, reinforcing rods and bars, welded structure and agricultural applications particularly fast wearing components, like the brake and clutch linings, gears, bearings and crop cutting blades etc. Generally, carbon is the most important element profoundly affecting the mechanical properties of the steels. Increasing the carbon content of steels increases the hardness and strength. More -over, plain carbon steels have moderate strengths and can resist satisfactorily ordinary temperatures range 20º to 60ºC and atmospheres RH 90% and also are available in large quantities, in quite large variations of shapes and sizes with much lower cost. In their service periods, steels parts undergo heavy working due to crop residue stresses. As a result wearing and tearing or breakage take place due to gradual loss of material during working of the component. The quality of the steel products depends on the condition of their surfaces and on surface deterioration due to use. Surface deterioration is also important in engineering practice, it is often the major factor limiting the life and performance of machine components. Various types of steels are used in agricultural applications. In most of farm tools and implement machinery steel is about of 80 to 90 per cent of the entire body weight. Presently, low carbon steels especially mild steels are being used for making many farm tools and implements. Medium carbon steels, high carbon steels and some low alloy steels are also being used for fast wearing components of farm implements/machines to provide high strength, toughness and wear resistance. Based on survey of manufacturers of fast wearing components of agricultural implements, it is revealed that majority of manufacturers were using medium carbon steel (55%) followed by high carbon steel (27%), mild steel (12%) and high carbon tool steel (6%) (Singh and Saxena, 2005). Experimental procedure adopted for estimating the quantity of wear loss and wear rate of power operated chaff cutter blade. The experimental procedure followed for conducting the different experiments has also been discussed. Experiments were conducted in three different phases to achieve the objectives of the proposed research work. In first phase market survey was done for collection of different materials used for manufacture of crop cutting blades and chemical analysis for identification of selected steel materials. In second phase, three surface hardening processes were selected and third phase, fabricated blade was done for power operated chaff cutter using best material found in phase second. On the basis of survey, crop cutting blades of medium carbon steels (EN 8), medium carbon low alloy steels (EN 19), spring steel (EN 45) and bearing steel (EN 31) were selected as these are cost effective and readily available in all shapes and dimensions. These are heat treatable, weldable, machinable and forgeable steel. The available automobile leaf spring steels and high carbon steel strips are manufactured by blacksmith industries in India. These types of crop cutting blades are generally used for various agro-implements. Therefore, in present study these four types of steel were selected for assessment of the wear loss or wear rate of crop cutting blades. Crop cutting blades were surface hardened with different process to find out the most effective process for wear resistance. In present study, hardened and tempered, CrN coating and cryogenic treatments were selected as a surface hardening treatment. On the basis of survey, crop cutting blades of medium carbon steels (EN 8), medium carbon low alloy steels (EN 19), spring steel (EN 45) and bearing steel (EN 31) were selected as these are cost effective and readily available in all shapes and dimensions. These are heat treatable, weldable, machinable and forgeable steel. Wear loss was increased with increased load. All heat treatments behaved in similar manner but control sample wear loss was rapidly increased after 60 N load in EN 45. In EN 8, control and hardening and tempering wear was decreased up to 60 N load, then constant up to 65 N and after 65 N, wear loss rapidly increased with increased load. Among the steels that were studied in the research, EN 45 spring steel with CrN coating was selected to observe performance of the power operated chaff blade in field for cutting agricultural crops. It was observed that the lowest wear loss was exhibited by chaff cutter blade while cutting maize whereas highest wear loss was seen in sugarcane after 45 h. This clearly noted that, life of blade can be well decided by the type of steel selected and type agricultural feedstock.ThesisItem Open Access DESIGN DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF GARLIC PLANTER.(Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, 2019-08-26) SOLANKI, MISS. SMITA NATWARLAL.; Thakare, Dr. S. H.The modern method of sowing is planting with the help of planter. Planter is a device that deposits seeds at equal distance in rows at specified rates and covers them with soil, so it is the time to have the machine which can perform function of planter and raised bed former in one combine unit. Considering the lack of appropriate planting, cultivation and harvesting machinery for mechanized garlic production, it is still grown in relatively small fields using traditional method. It requires about 60-65 man days to sow one hectare which costs around Rs. 16250 per ha. Therefore, in this study an innovatively designed tractor operated, ground wheel driven, ten row raised bed, crop precision planter capable of planting ten rows of garlic cloves at a spacing of 10×15 cm was designed, fabricated and tested at Department of Farm Power and Machinery, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Dr. PDKV, Akola. During the course of experiment, efforts were made to study biophysical characteristics of garlic cloves in terms of size, unit mass, bulk density and angle of repose. Laboratory test for germination percentage was also carried out. For finalization of metering mechanism three different types of metering mechanisms viz. cup type, spoon type and inclined plate of metering mechanism were tested on sticky belt set up and considering the performance of each metering mechanism with respect to average seed spacing, miss index, multiple index, and damage percentage for the forward speed of 1.8, 2.65 and 3.10 km/h. From these experiments, spoon type mechanism was found to have better performance than cup type and inclined plate mechanism. Hence spoon type mechanism was selected and its size was optimized by considering three different sizes of spoon for agri-found G-41 variety. The selected spoon size based on its performance was used in metering mechanism of prototype and was tested for its performance in the field for theoretical field capacity, effective field capacity, field capacity, field efficiency, miss index, multiple index, germination percentage etc for three different speeds of 1.8, 2.6 and 3.1 km/h and for two bed heights of 20 and 30 cm. The data obtained during the course of experiment were analyzed and based on results it is concluded that the tractor mounted, 10 row, raised bed precision planter was found suitable for planting graded garlic cloves on a raised bed of 2.1 m wide with the forward speed of 1.8 to 2.65 km/h for minimum multiple index, miss index, seed damage, fuel consumption, draft and power requirement. Ten row raised bed garlic planter gives best results for 1.8 km/h speed and 20 cm bed height combination. The highest germination of 89 percent with lowest seed rate of 615 kg/ha was observed for the same combination. Lowest miss index of 10.51 per cent and multiple index of 3.14 per cent indicated better performance of the machine. More specifically with a theoretical spacing of 10 cm in the study only 3.14 percent of clove spacing was less than or equals to 5 cm. The level of multiple index is considered to be low and acceptable. This combination demands lowest power of 3.45 hp and gives highest field efficiency of 77 per cent. The maximum germination percentage of 89 percent was recorded at forward speed of 1.8 km/h and 20 cm furrow depth suited to best soil moisture conservation practice. The minimum germination percentage of 65 percent was recorded at forward speed of 3.1 km/h and 30 cm furrow depth. It was observed that there is saving in cost of operation by 78.12 per cent over traditional practices and saving in seed by 20 to 30 per cent with increase in yield by 25 to 30 per cent over traditional method.
