Draught requirements of enamel coated animal drawn mouldboard plough
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2005 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Research in Agricultural Engineering |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Agricultural machines and buildings |
| Keywords | . Enamel coating; uncoated plough; enamel-coated plough; actual draught and specific draught |
| Description | The power requirement of tillage implements is an important design consideration particularly for animal-drawn implements where the power is limited. The paper presents the possibility of reduction in the draft requirements of animal-drawn mouldboard plough by using enamel coating on the soil-engaged components such as the mouldboard, share and the landside. Trials were conducted to compare enamel-coated BSP (Bulawayo Steel Products Pvt. Ltd, Zimbabwe) mouldboard plough with similar uncoated plough, both animal-drawn, under comparable working conditions. Experiments were done at 25% and 32% (db) soil moisture content on a red clay soil in Zimbabwe. The parameters measured in evaluating the draft performance of both ploughs were the tractive effort (pull), speed of ploughing, depth and width of ploughing, and soil conditions (i.e. soil moisture content, soil bulk density and soil hardness). It was found that for similar working conditions the enamel coating reduced the specific draught by 20 to 26% depending upon soil moisture content. |
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