Design, development and performance evaluation of battery cum manually operated boom sprayer
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Date
2019-07
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
Plant protection is an essential operation in the basic practices of crop production. Data shows that diseases, insects and weed put together 30 to 45 % damage to the crops produced worldwide .Various plant protection measures are followed throughout India, among which chemical method is most widely used. Common plant protection equipment’s include Knapsack sprayers (manual and power operated), foot sprayer, power tiller operated, tractor mounted sprayer in India. Most of the Indian farmers have marginal and small land holding which makes it difficult to operate a tractor-drawn sprayer in those fields. Indian former generally uses backpack sprayer due to small and marginal land holding. Several problems due to use of conventional backpack sprayers are arise, heavyweight cause difficulty in lifting manually, fatigue produces to the operator due to carry heavyweight for a long time with backpack sprayer. Engine driven sprayer makes unwanted noise due to this users feel uncomfortable during operation time. For reducing the above problem, it was felt to develop low cost battery cum manually operated boom sprayer. It will be farmer friendly, cheaper than tractor operated sprayer and suitable for row crops. It was suitable for small land holdings farmers and had low cost of operation. The battery cum manually operated boom sprayer had an improved boom section with even flat fan nozzles mounted on the top of the boom to spray chemical from the top of the row. The performance of the developed sprayer was evaluated in laboratory condition to ensure that the objectives are fulfilled. The nozzles were tested in the laboratory to find its volumetric distribution, swath and spray angle at different pressure and height combinations. The independent parameters for patternator test were operating pressure (70, 84, 91 and 140 kPa) and nozzle heights (200, 300, 400, 500, and 600 mm). The flat fan nozzle gave its best volumetric distribution at 91 kPa and 200 mm nozzle height. The swath and angle of spray of the nozzles were determined and it was found that with increase in pressure and height the swath was increased while the spray angle increased with pressure. The uniformity coefficient of the data for flat fan the nozzle was calculated. The flat fan nozzles produced most uniform droplets at 91kPa. The performance evaluation of developed sprayer was tested in the laboratory condition at four different speeds (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 km/h) and discharge rate was measured. The developed battery cum manually operated boom sprayer should be operated at 1.5 to 2 km/h speed and any selected levels of tank at full stroke length (i.e. 45 mm) manual mode of operation as well as battery mode of operation and at medium stroke length (i.e. 30 mm) sprayer should be operated at 1.5 to 2 km/h for half level of tank and at ¾ th level of tank for 2 km/h speed.
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