Design and development of oscillating intercultural equipment for rice

Abstract

Transplanting is the major method of rice cultivation in India. Irrespective of the method of paddy crop establishment, weed is a major impediment to rice production through its ability to compete for resources and their impact on paddy crop yields. The cutting tool will make a reciprocation maximum motion of 6 cm perpendicular to the direction of transplanted crop rows. This gives an effective working width of 16 cm leaving 7 cm as root protective zone on either side of the weeded rows. The required stroke lengths selected for the weeding tool 60, 40 and 20 mm, could be obtained at crank radius of 30, 20 and 10 mm, respectively. The linear speeds of sliding bar for 20, 40 and 60 mm stroke lengths were observed to be 0.25, 0.51 and 0.76 m s-1, respectively. The peripheral and angular velocity of crank wheel were 4.97 m s-1 and 39.77 rad s-1, respectively. The force required to operate the slider bar in the mechanism was 2202.8 N, whereas the force exerted by the crank wheel to the sliding bar was 2738.08 N. Hence, the design was satisfactory