DEVELOPMENT OF TRACTOR MOUNTED FYM SPREADER

VINAYAK, M.

DEVELOPMENT OF TRACTOR MOUNTED FYM SPREADER

Files

Thesis.pdf (3.17 MB)

Date

2021-09-07

Authors

VINAYAK, M.

Abstract

India is predominantly an agricultural country and soils are poor in organic matter and plant nutrients. Present day’s scenario getting quality food products also a challenge because of indiscriminate use of inorganic fertilizers which are important inputs in present day farming creates depletion in soil fertility and causing water pollution. Fertilizers cause leaching out the nutrients from the soil surfaces, destroying the micro organisms and eco friendly insects. Moreover the cost of fertilizers also more expensive and need to depend on market. To avoid these problems instead of using chemical fertilizer use of farm yard manure (FYM) will not only reduces soil damage but also improves the soil structure. Application of FYM increases the soil fertility. FYM contained almost all essential nutrients required for soil. The application of FYM in the field is carried out traditionally lead to uneven distribution, increases cost and labour requirement. Considering these aspects, as there is scope to work on spreading of FYM uniformly in the field level. The tractor mounted FYM spreader was developed in RARS, Tirupathi to pulverize and spread the FYM. The developed machine consisted the manure tub, FYM conveyor unit, manure discharging gate, shredding and spreading unit. The designed conveyor unit consists of the rollers (diameter 150 mm and length 1800 mm) and spacers’ arrangement (diameter 63 mm and length 1700 mm) and manure discharge gate provided to change levels of opening from the bottom of conveyor belt. The designed shredding cum spreading unit is mainly consists of main frame, beating roller(one), beating elements (22) and spreading mechanism. The shredding unit is mounted on the mainframe. The main frame basic structure on which whole shredder unit was mounted, main frame was fabricated in rectangular shape with 63 mm iron L-angles of 1800 mm × 470 mm. Provision was made to the main frame unit to connect and disconnect from tractor three point hitch system, only when the shredding unit was operational in field. The beating roller consisted of 22 mild steel flanges arranged in four rows with equal spacing. Two rows consist 6 flanges remaining rows with are 5 flanges at equal spacing. The beating roller diameter is 200 mm and length of 1800 mm. The beating elements flexible chains with 102 mm length flanges by using fasteners. The entire assembly was mounted on the main frame using thrust bearings at height of 300 mm. The shredder FYM material collected at bottom was further directed to the bottom and openings are designed in such way that the material is evenly spread on the field. All the components of FYM spreader system except conveyor assembly, were mounted on a rectangular housing and made to rest on the trailer connecting shank including gear box and related power transmission assembly. The overall dimensions were 1800 mm × 470 mm so as to house the component. The developed tractor mounted FYM spreader was evaluated for field performance with the optimized variables derived from the experimental trials are the conveyor speed, bulk density and clod size distribution. The conveyor speed is 48 RPM, beating roller speed 255 rpm, bulk density and clod size distribution were observed as 0.503 g cm-3 and 57.66 % at 100 mm discharge gate opening with 4 chain links respectively. The discharge rate is 4.9 t/h at 100 mm manure discharge gate opening belt speed at 48 rpm. The spread quantity of 0.850 kg/m2 was obtained at forward speed of 3.2 Km h-1 and spread quantity is 1.51 kg/m2 was obtained at forward speed of 1.8 Km h-1. The width of operation was measured in the field and it was observed that width of the machine was 1800 mm. Theoretical field capacity found to vary from 0.36 and 0.54 ha h-1 and effective field capacity for each operation was calculated were 0.28 and 0.432 ha h-1. The cost of operation of the developed machine per ha is found to be Rs. 1465 which is 5.4 times less when compared with the traditional FYM spreading method. Moreover labour requirement reduced to great extent from twenty man days to two man days and operation drudgery of application was completely eliminated. Key words: FYM Spreader, conveyor unit, manure discharge opening, shredder unit, beating elements, housing, discharge rate, bulk density, sieve analysis, spread quantity, cost of operation.