DEVELOPMENT OF A SWIVELING HEAD TYPE POWER BRUSH CUTTER 2943
Loading...
Files
Date
2019-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
JAU, JUNAGADH
Abstract
Grass cutting is an important operation in agriculture field. In India, agriculture
has facing serious challenges like scarcity of agricultural labour in peak seasons and
almost throughout the year. In India, grass is cut in two ways i.e manual method
(conventional method) and mechanized way. In the past and even until now, cutting of
grasses in the field surface, forest, sports tracks, industries, hotels, public centre, etc.
are being cut with a cutlass. Manual cutting is time consuming and stressful operation.
In addition, inaccuracy in cutting level was also observed in manual cutting method. In
India, for the design and development of most of the agricultural machines have been
given less attention towards ergonomic aspects. While to get more work from a worker
it is must to consider ergonomic design.
A swiveling head type power brush cutter was developed and test results were
analyzed in terms of, cutting efficiency, field efficiency, heart rate, oxygen
consumption rate and energy expenditure rate. Three different forward speed: 1 km/h,
1.5 km/h and 2 km/h and three different swiveling shaft speed of 15 rpm, 20 rpm and
25 rpm with three different nylon wire length 10 cm, 15 cm, 20 cm were used for the
test performance.
For the experiment, alfalfa grass was used for cutting. The field capacity of
existing brush cutter is 0.098 ha/h, but in case of developed brush cutter it is 0.123 ha/h.
The maximum field efficiency was found 91.47 % at 1 km/h forward speed, 15 rpm
swiveling shaft speed and 10 cm nylon wire length. The maximum cutting efficiency
was found 94.81 % at 1 km/h, 25 rpm swiveling shaft speed and 20 cm nylon wire
length. Minimum heart rate, oxygen consumption rate, energy expenditure rate were
found at 1 km/h forward speed, 15 rpm swiveling shaft speed and 10 cm nylon wire
length. The energy consumption of developed brush cutter was observed 185.13 MJ/ha
while by existing brush cutter operation it was 235.27 MJ/ha.