A MODIFIED Triangle-SHAPE CHISEL PLOW (EVALUATION AND PERFORMANCE TEST)

Abstract

The main objective of this investigation is to rearrange the tines of chisel plow as D-shape to reduce draft force required for plowing and to avoid jamming of soil clods and crop residues which frequently occurred when using the common chisel plow of tines arranged in 2 rows. The performance of the modified D-shape chisel plow was evaluated compared to other 2 and 3 rows of chisel plow. The performance tests were carried out at two different pervious crops of experimental field with three levels of soil moisture content (25.20, 20.25 and 17.30% for rice field and 20.77, 16.92 and 14.38% for soya bean field). Two different levels of plowing depth (10 and 20 cm) were included in the tests. The obtained results indicated that: The lowest values of draft force and the highest values of field capacity were recorded with the modified D-shape chisel plow (4 rows) compared with other shapes of chisel plow (2 and 3 rows) at any given study parameters. Meanwhile, the highest values of draft force and the lowest values of field capacity were obtained with 2 rows chisel plow. Using the modified 4 rows chisel plow saved about 23 up to 59% in the power consumption and about 30 up to 58% in the energy requirements compared with other shapes of chisel plow (2 & 3 rows) at any given study parameters, in addition to obtain highest degree of plowing quality. It is recommended to locally fabricate and operate the modified D-shape chisel plow (4 rows) for the Nile delta soil conditions. This modification may be develop the production of chisel plow to be more suitable for agricultural business in Egypt, especially the Egyptian government encourages and facilitate the local manufacture to move the country import dependency to self sufficient. Where, the local manufacturing still making similar copy from imported one without standardization.