Wear of spring tine cultivator points in sandy loam and light clay soils in southern Poland

Abstract

Correct evaluation and forecasting of durability of soil cutting parts are the decisive factors for proper operation of agricultural machinery. During operation of cultivators, over two-fold difference in wear of cultivator points is observed, which makes establishing of their exchange periods extremely difficult. So, there is a need to conduct some research aimed for determination of relationship between arrangement of the points in individual cultivator rows and their wear. The presented experiments were performed under authentic farm conditions during spring soil loosening and levelling operations before sowing and planting, in sandy loam and light clay soils. Changes in length and thickness of the spring tine points, wear patterns and weight loss were measured. Loss in length of spring tine points was described by a complex function of the distance travelled or by an exponential function of the distance from the measuring point to the symmetry axis of a spring tine point; loss in thickness was described by a linear function. It was found that soil type, as well as arrangement of the points in individual cultivator rows and their position in relation to the tractor wheel track, significantly influenced their wear. It was also observed that wear of spring tine points was 40–100% higher in the sandy loam soil than in the light clay soil, and that wear within a tractor wheel track was 17–40% higher than outside the track. Moreover, wear of points positioned in the first row on the cultivator frame was 26–100% higher than wear of those in the third row. The research results emphasise the need for field experiments at compare wear of spring tine points made of different materials or of different designs to take into account differences in wear due to positioning of the points on cultivator frames.