Design and Development of Power Transmission System for Tractor Operated Hybrid Bio-Composite Mulch Sheet Laying Machine

Abstract

Tractor 3 point hitch drawn hybrid bio-composite bio degradable mulch laying machine was designed and developed based on the formulation of the hybrid bio-composite mulch sheets with a intension of the integrate the field operations at easy pace and conserve the time and labour. The prototype was fabricated and tested in the fields in order to perform the operations such as hybrid bio-composite mulch sheet laying, Mulch sheet pressing and guiding and soil covering on the edges of the mulch sheets in one forward movement of the machine. The machine was fabricated with design of many components but the power transmission system was plays a major role in this machine as the entire forward movement of machine and performance of the mulch sheet laying unit was depends on the power transmission system only. Various components of power transmission system was designed such as shafts, chain, bearings and sprockets etc. The shaft design was done considering the two conditions of fields while in operation like considering twisting and bending moments of the shaft as well as sudden applied shocks and fluctuated loads. Considering the two conditions, the main shaft, counter shaft and rear wheel shafts diameters were designed based on this two conditions and obtained results were 30 mm, 40 mm and 25 mm respectively The chain and sprocket will be used for the transmitting the power from one shaft to other one. The length of the chain was calculated 162.56 cm and the HP transmitted by the selected chain and HP of chain drive system were calculated as 2.05 hp and 0.339 hp respectively. Based on the results, the calculated horse power was less than the horse power of selected chain that means required horse power was 0.339 hp but we have got 2.05 hp, hence the design was safe and machine will be operate without any hassles.