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"Planters (Agricultural machinery)"
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Planters
The seeds on a farm don't sow themselves, but luckily farmers have sophisticated machinery to help them transform a fertile field into a bountiful breadbasket. This book takes readers out to the fields to see planters at work.
Book
Design and experimental study of a precision fluid hill-drop planter for maize
The study presents the design of a precision maize hill-drop dibbler based on fluid control and zero-speed seeding theory, developed to overcome challenges of poor planting precision, seed damage, limited terrain adaptability, and low water-use efficiency in maize cultivation across the hilly regions of Southwest China. To this end, a novel precision fluid hill-drop planter was designed, integrating fluid control with zero-speed seeding theory. The device employs a seed-liquid separation and terminal mixing design, where a crank-connecting rod-driven piston pump ensures precise fluid delivery. A direct comparative experimental framework was established, evaluating the proposed planter against a traditional spoon-wheel seeder under identical bench-test conditions. Performance was assessed through CFD-DEM coupled simulation and systematic experiments across multiple dimensions: seeding precision (qualified, multiple, and miss index), hill-forming characteristics, and fluid performance (water application per hill, seed bounce distance). The comparative results demonstrated that within an operating speed range of 1.2 ~ 1.6 m/s, the new planter achieved a qualified index exceeding 91%, a significant improvement of 12.5% over the conventional device. The seed bounce distance was controlled within 5.4 mm, representing a 63.2% reduction. Furthermore, the system exhibited excellent operational stability, with a coefficient of variation for water application per hill of less than 2% and a check valve leakage rate below 3%. Through collaborative parameter optimization, breakthrough indicators were achieved: a 94.8% seed-water coincidence rate and a hill spacing deviation of no more than 1.0%. This research validates the proposed planter's superior performance and reliability, providing an effective technical solution to enhance sowing uniformity and water-use efficiency in complex terrain.
Journal Article
Planters
Sowing crops on a farm would be backbreaking working without the machines called planters. These tractor-pulled tools can look quite different. Some are small, sowing just one row, and some can plant as many as 48 rows at a time. Readers will find out how these machines work and see their parts in motion in labeled photographs. Theyll also discover how technology is changing this farm machine as well as some other seeding devices.
Book
Development and laboratory evaluation of a novel IoT-based electric-driven metering system for high precision garlic planter
In order to address many issues, such as the inconsistent and unreliable seeding process in traditional mechanical garlic seed metering systems (SMS), as well as the lack of ability to monitor the effectiveness of the seeding, a highly accurate electric-driven metering system (EDMS) was developed and created specifically for garlic seed planters. This study provided a description of the overall structure and functioning principle, as well as an analysis of the mechanism for smooth transit and delivery. A combination of an infrared (IR) sensor, Arduino Mega board, stepper motor, speed sensor, and a Wi-Fi module was employed to operate the EDMS, as well as monitor and count the quantity of garlic seeds during the planting process and determine the qualified rate (QR) and missing rate (MR). A monitoring system of the planting quality of garlic seeds was created based on the IoT concept. Then, the performance of the EDMS was validated in a laboratory setting utilizing a bench test at six operating velocities of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 rpm of the EDMS. The obtained results showed that the correlation coefficient between the actual and detected garlic seed using the garlic seed monitoring and counting system (GSMCS) was 0.9723. Additionally, the EDMS observed a maximum QR of 96.23% at an operating velocity of 20 rpm, with a standard division and standard error of 1.61030 and 0.72015, respectively. Additionally, the EDMS minimized the MR up to 3.77% at the same operating velocity, with standard division and standard error of 1.65325 and 0.73936, respectively. Furthermore, the results indicated a progressive increase in the QR and MQ standard errors as the EDMS’s operating velocity increased. Additionally, the sensor’s monitoring accuracy gradually declined with an increase in the operating speed of the EDMS. Finally, this study introduced a novel EDMS to garlic seed planters that was not used before. The developed EDMS and GSMCS are technical manuals for developing and designing monitoring systems capable of precisely measuring and identifying the rates of qualifying and missing garlic seed measurements.
Journal Article
No-Tillage Crop Production: A Revolution in Agriculture
For thousands of years, agriculture and tillage were considered synonymous. It was simply not thought possible to grow crops without first tilling the soil before planting and for weed control. The advent of modern herbicides permitted no-tillage (NT) to be developed and practiced on actual working family farms. No-tillage is generally defined as planting crops in unprepared soil with at least 30% mulch cover. Adoption of NT after its successful demonstration in the 1950s was slow. However, with better planters, herbicides, and accumulated experience, NT began to be widely adopted in the 1980s in the United States and then in Australia, South America, and Canada. Today, approximately 23% of the total cropland in the United States is planted using NT. No-tillage has revolutionized agricultural systems because it allows individual producers to manage greater amounts of land with reduced energy, labor, and machinery inputs. At the same time, NT is a very effective erosion control measure and improves water and fertilizer use efficiency so that many crops yield better under NT than under tilled systems. Tillage, like crops, can be rotated but the benefits of NT are most likely to be realized with continuous application. We review some of the early work that led to the development of NT and how NT impacts the crop, soil, hydrology, and farm economics. While highly sustainable, there are still many challenges that remain for researchers to solve so the benefits of NT can be realized on expanded land area and for more crops, worldwide.
Journal Article
Analysis of Manufacturing Methods and Die Design for Rice Transplanter Claws and Combine Harvester Blades in Bangladesh
High labor wages brought on by a shrinking agricultural labor force, as well as promises of increased crop yields and decreased labor requirements, have spurred the adoption of agricultural mechanization in Bangladesh. Due to these factors, the market for more complex agricultural machinery, such as rice transplanters and combine harvesters, is growing substantially in Bangladesh. As a result, a market has developed for agricultural workshops to manufacture spare parts within the local communities. However, the current manufacturing practices of local agricultural workshops limit their ability to produce high-quality parts that can compete with spare parts imported from China. This paper presents the analysis of the manufacturing processes used in the manufacturing of two key spare parts for the mechanization of planting and harvesting in Bangladesh: rice transplanter claws and combine harvester blades. The manufacturing processes proposed in this paper use machine tools and manufacturing processes that are ubiquitous in Bangladesh, such as grinders and drill presses. Additional manufacturing processes, such as blanking and forming with punch and die sets, are proposed as the methods for increasing product quality and reducing the manufacturing time required to produce complex geometries, such as those found on rice transplanter claws and combine harvester blades. The results from the experimental testing and the finite element simulations of the deformation processes indicate that local manufacturing of high-quality rice transplanter claws and combine harvester blades is viable with the proposed manufacturing processes.
Journal Article
Power Compensation Strategy and Experiment of Large Seedling Tree Planter Based on Energy Storage Flywheel
The intermittent hole-digging tree-planting machine shows a periodic short-time peak load law in planting operation, and the operation process is “idling” for small loads most of the time, leading to large torque fluctuations in the transmission system, unscientific power matching, and high energy consumption. To solve the above problems, this article proposes to use a series of energy-saving flywheels in the transmission system of the tree planting machine. On the premise of obtaining holes that meet the target young tree planting requirements, the optimal power compensation strategy for the flywheel system of the tree planting machine is studied to reduce torque fluctuations in the power transmission system, use smaller power drive units, and save energy. Firstly, the nonlinear multi-body dynamics simulation model of soil cutting by the hole-digging component is established. The boundary and contact conditions are set to simulate the power consumption of the hole-digging component at three rotating speeds. Based on the simulation results, the flywheel power compensation strategy is discussed, and the torque fluctuation of the flywheel balance system is analyzed. The results showed that the higher the speed, the greater the power consumption. The power value suddenly increased from 17.82 kW (1.28 s) to 27.93 kW (1.43 s) when the speed was 220 r/min. Then, the power value rapidly decreased, and the power consumption presented a short-term peak feature. The transmission system’s maximum input power is determined as 17.82 kW according to the various simulated power consumption characteristics. The part exceeding the power consumption is compensated by the energy storage flywheel. The total compensation energy was 2382.5 J. After the flywheel system was involved, the maximum output power of the tractor power output shaft decreased by 36.2%, and the peak torque decreased from 445.7 N·m to 285.1 N·m. The power consumption obtained from the field test and simulation was similar, but the energy required to overcome peak load was jointly provided by the flywheel and the engine. The actual input power of the power output shaft during the energy release period of the flywheel system was 18.51 kW when the rotating speed of the hole-digging component was 220 r/min, and the relative error with the simulation value was 2.43%. The measured actual speed reduction of the flywheel system was 8.9%. After installing an energy storage flywheel in the transmission system of the tree planting machine, the output power of the power unit can be stabilized. Tree planting machines can be equipped with smaller power units, which can reduce energy consumption and exhaust emissions.
Journal Article
Innovation of strip fertilization planting for rice straw crushing with back-throwing and interrow-laying
Background
In order to improve the current situations in rice–wheat rotation region in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, such as large amount of rice straw, complex returning process, short-time stubble connection, high power consumption, poor smoothness and especially unstable performance, and further promote the resource utilization process of full straw returning in Jiangsu province, this study, combined with the agronomic requirements of wheat sowing in rice-stubble land, developed an innovation of strip fertilization planting for straw crushing with back-throwing and interrow-laying in full stubble fields.
Results
Structural design and theoretical analysis were carried out on key components such as straw crushing device, broken-straw control device, soil rotary-tillage device and power transmission device, etc., to determine the corresponding structure and operating performance parameters, and then the field performance and verification tests were completed on the uniformity of inter-row mulching-straw
Y
1
and the variability of seed-band width
Y
2
. The results showed that the crushing spindle rotation-speed
A
had an extremely significant impact on
Y
1
, followed by the machine ground speed
B
. The conveying impeller rotation-speed
C
had an extremely significant effect on
Y
2
, also secondary to the machine ground speed
B
. And the superior combination of factor levels as
A
2
B
2
C
2
was adopted through the comprehensive power energy consumption analysis. The verification test results indicated that under the optimized operation parameter combination, namely, when the crushing spindle rotation-speed
A
was 2100 r/min, the machine ground speed
B
was 0.8 m/s, and the conveying impeller rotation-speed
C
was 210 r/min, the mean value of inter-row straw uniformity
Y
1
and seed-band width variation
Y
2
were 90.85% and 10.73%, respectively, after machine operation.
Conclusion
It meets the requirements of operation quality and planting agronomy of relevant protective tillage machinery, and provides technical and equipment support for the research and development of similar straw crushing and no-tillage sowing.
Journal Article
Vibrational Dynamics of Rice Precision Hole Seeders and Their Impact on Seed Dispensation Efficacy
This investigation considered the effects of both internal and external excitation vibrations on the efficacy of the seed dispenser in a rice precision hole seeder. Through comprehensive field tests, we analyzed vibrational characteristics during direct seeder operations and established a vibration seeding test bed for systematic examination of these effects. Time-domain analysis of the vibration data revealed a predominantly vertical vibration direction, with notably higher levels in sandy loam soil compared to clay loam. A correlation was observed between increased engine size and rotary ploughing speeds, as well as forward speed and elevated vibration amplitudes. Frequency domain analysis pinpointed the primary vibration frequency of the machinery within the 0–170 Hz range, remaining consistent across different operating conditions. Crucially, bench test results indicated that seeding accuracy and dispersion were significantly influenced by vibration frequencies, particularly within the 70–130 Hz range, where a decrease in accuracy and increase in dispersion were noted. A regression model suggested a complex, non-linear relationship between seeding performance and vibration frequency. These insights highlight the necessity for a robust mechanism to effectively address these vibrational impacts. This study paves the way for enhancing the operational efficiency of the rice precision hole seeder, aiming to achieve the design goals of minimized vibrations in the paddy power chassis.
Journal Article
Soil Sustainability: Analysis of the Soil Compaction under Heavy Agricultural Machinery Traffic in Extensive Crops
Crop establishment depends mostly on the soil preparation and sowing methods used. Our main goal was to evaluate soil compaction and its effects on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) yields and seedling emergence with two different tillage methods: no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT). The study was done in the Western Pampas Region during three cropping seasons. The soil of the study site is a Mollisol. The variables measured were: (1) cone index (CI), (2) dry bulk density (DBD), (3) seedling emergence (SE), and (4) crops yield (CY). For both crops, seedling emergence was slower in NT than in CT, but results were similar 22 days after sowing. After 3 years, the results show that in NT the DBD and CI reached values of 1653 kg m−3 and 3210 kPa, respectively (between 275 and 300 mm). While in CT the values of DBD and CI reached were 1540 kg m−3 and 2300 kPa respectively at the same depth. The highest yields were found in CT (3.31 and 4.10 tons/ha−1, for soybean and wheat, respectively) compared to NT (2.91 and 3.53 tons/ha−1). Topsoil horizon has to be tilled to improve crop yields. In spite of the high number of equipment passes in CT, both tillage systems caused subsoil compaction.
Journal Article