Design modification of an automatic mouldboard profilograph

This paper presents the design modification of an automatic mouldboard profilograph by substituting an optical sensor and a control system, together with its evaluation. The modified profilograph is an electro-mechanical apparatus in which a micro switch and a DC motor were replaced by an optical sensor and a control system for the revolution of a DC motor. Thereby, the considered surface was measured by using a non – contact sensor. This apparatus has the capability of drawing the profilograms of a 3-D object as a 2-D drawing in the same contour lines. The profilograms drawn by this apparatus can be useful for the mouldboard design and its surface modelling. They compared the drawn profilograms before and after modification. In order to verify the apparatus performance, horizontal and vertical profilograms of a cylindroidal mouldboard were drawn. Comparisons of drawing accuracies were conducted for a metal cylindroidal surface with radius of 315 mm and 540 mm in length, by using the two sensors. Our results have shown that the use of the optical sensor and of the control system has reduced the drawing error of the mouldboard surface curvature up to 70%

Effect of force control system on power and time consumption of tree pruning machine

This scientific paper showed the manipulator operation and the end effector of pruning machine with a force control system. The effect of the sensitivity coefficient of force control system, cutting tool rotating speed, wood diameter and the interface effects on cutting time and power consumption were analysed by Duncan’s test. Finally, we have analysed and investigated, once with variance analysis results, the system effect of force control on time and power consumption and suitable method of system usage of force control pruning machine. Based on these results, by increasing the sensitivity coefficient of the force control, the work time has increased and the power consumption has decreased. In addition, less rotational speed must be chosen in a sensitivity coefficient level. Therefore, the force control system of a tree pruning machine may be used for energy saving

Design, development and evaluation of an electrical heater for protecting tree from winter injury

When woody plants are subjected to a sudden large drop in temperature, injury or even death of plants can occur. An electrical heater unit designed for cold protection tree in winter. It made up from three layers. Material of middle layers was from glass wool and two outer layers were from waterproof rubber covering. Thermal wires were placed inside the layers. Electrical heater of tree could be used for trees with trunk diameter between 15 cm to 45 cm. The electrical heater around the trunk was wrapped, and then in a cooler chamber was placed. Tests carried out in five different temperatures (-8, -12, -15, -18 and -20 °C) with five replications on the same trunk. Essential power and voltage for this electrical heater was 54.6 W and 24 V. Tests results indicated that the tree heater kept trunk in temperature 20, 19, 18, 15 and 14°C while cooler chamber temperature was -8, -12, -15, -18 and -20°C, respectively

Measurement of Time-Averaged Particle-Wall Collision Properties Using Particle Tracking Velocimetry, CRADA PC93-006, Final Report

This paper describes an experimental facility to measure time-averaged properties of particle-wall collisions. A particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) system measures particle rebound angles and velocities and impact angles and velocities for specific particles. From these measured properties, values of normal and tangential coefficient of restitution are derived. The PTV system rapidly measures thousands of particle-wall collisions enabling determination of time-averaged properties. In this initial work we use 191 {micro}m glass particles colliding with a glass plate at a fixed angle of 17.5{degree} and a velocity of 17.07 m/s. Observations are also made of aspherical particles colliding with gross sliding. In the future, this experimental system will be used with particles and wall materials of industrial significance

STUDY ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF SUNFLOWER SEEDS

ABSTRACT Some physical and mechanical properties of sunflower seeds were studied. The measured parameters were linear dimensions, thousand grain mass, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, surface and projected area, volume, shape parameters (such as flakiness ratio and elongation ratio), true and bulk densities, porosity, angle of repose and static coefficient of friction of the Shamshiri variety in the moisture range from 6.3 to 20% (w.b.) using standard methods. Average rupture force, deformation and absorbed energy at rupture point of the sunflower seeds under compression as well as the extent of physical damage to seeds due to impact were also determined over a range of moisture contents between 1.8% and 20.3% (w.b). The results showed a variation of 14.32 to 31.00 mm for length, 4.73 to 9.82 mm for width and 2.36 to 6.67 mm for thickness of sunflower seeds. The values of the thousand grain mass, seed volume, true density, bulk density and porosity of sunflower seeds were between149. 81-167.77g, 99.05-628.9 mm3, 444.39-521.78 kg/m3, 269.06-275.57 kg/m3 and 39.09-47.18% respectively. The rupture force, deformation, and absorbed energy increased with increase in moisture content from 1.8 to 14.5%, while decreased with further increasing of moisture content from 14.5 to 20.3%. The mean value of percentage of physically damaged seeds increased from 2.75 to 10.81% with increasing the impact velocity from 40.8 to 62.3 m/s. In both impact orientations, the total damaged seeds increased with increase in impact velocity for all moisture contents of seeds

Effect of temperature on adhesion of clay soil to steel

Soil adhesion is one of the important factors in measuring the amount of energy consumption. In this paper, the effect of temperature on the amount of clay soil adhesion was investigated. The soil used in this research was saturated clay mud. In order to measure adhesion, a specific instrument was designed. The dimensions of the metal plate were 210×70×20 mm and its weight was 2.5 kgf. The metal plate alloy was st37. The adhesion was calculated from the difference between weight of water used for clearing the metal plate of the soil and the weight of the metal plate. Six levels of temperature from 5 to 30°c were applied. A refrigerator and an oven were used for getting the required temperature. The test was performed three times for each level. Results showed that an increase in temperature from 5 to 30°c decreases the soil adhesion. Three equations such as linear polynomial, exponential and quadratic polynomial correlated with the experimental data and the result showed that the quadratic polynomial model had the best correlation with experimental data