Abstract
Soil compaction and accumulation are caused by crawler steering. Soil characteristics would affect the ability of crawler straight forward and steering in situ. This paper studied the principle of straight forward steering and steering in situ mode of traditional unilateral brake steering gearbox of a crawler combine harvester. Then a positive and negative steering gearbox model was developed and processed. The performance of positive and negative steering gearbox was analyzed by performing two steering modes on soil compaction effect. Results showed that the positive and negative steering gearboxes can achieve three operating modes, such as straight forward, unilateral brake steering, and positive and negative steering in situ. The positive and negative steering in situ was smooth and without soil accumulation phenomenon. When the crawlers center distance, crawler grounding length, crawler width were 1150 mm, 1620 mm and 450 mm respectively, the rolling area and the scratch free area of positive and negative steering gearbox were 5.37 m2 and 0.36 m2 respectively. However, the rolling area and the scratch free area produced by unilateral brake steering gearbox were 13.92 m2 and 1.88 m2 respectively, which was 8.55 m2 larger than that of positive and negative steering gearbox. The crawler with positive and negative steering gearbox has minor damage to paddy soil. This research can provide a theoretical basis for the smooth steering in situ and structural optimization of the crawler steering gearbox. Keywords: steering gearbox, rolling soil track, steering in situ, rolling and scraping, shaft and gear DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20201301.3957 Citation: Tang Z, Zhang H T, Li H C, Li Y M, Ding Z, Chen J S. Developments of crawler steering gearbox for combine harvester straight forward and steering in situ. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2020; 13(1): 120–126.
Highlights
The crawler of rice combine harvester always goes forward and turning in wet field
Tang Z, et al Developments of crawler steering gearbox for combine harvester straight forward and steering in situ Vol 13 No.1 121 problems, many scholars have carried out much research on soil properties, steering structure, ground viscosity resistance, steering control, etc[11,12,13]
This paper developed a positive and negative steering gearbox, which could travel and steering in situ
Summary
The crawler of rice combine harvester always goes forward and turning in wet field. Due to the large touching surface with soil field, the pressure between the field and track would be smaller than that of wheeled vehicle[1,2]. The unilateral brake steering gearbox of combine harvester can go straight forward, back and steer. The existing unilateral brake system in combine harvester has turned to a large radius and had a serious impact on soft soil. Unilateral brake steering has caused the existing crawler combine harvester to be inflexible in the field and prone to crawling and other issues. Tang Z, et al Developments of crawler steering gearbox for combine harvester straight forward and steering in situ Vol 13 No. 121 problems, many scholars have carried out much research on soil properties, steering structure, ground viscosity resistance, steering control, etc[11,12,13]. Small radius hydraulic drive steering crawlers were mainly concentrated on ground, hard road and mountain These related research results were rarely applied in agricultural paddy field. Crawler steering trajectories and soil surface features were used to measure the steering performance of PNS
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