Title: Design, development and performance analysis of modified solid fertiliser spreader equipped with air blower

Authors: Chandan Kumar; K.B. Rana; M.L. Meena

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Swami Keshvanand Institute of Technology, Management and Gramothan, Jaipur, 302017, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, 324010, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, 302017, India

Abstract: The fertilisation is a tedious and expensive process, as generally carried out by traditional method which requires lots of manual efforts. Therefore, keeping in mind the needs of farmers and workers, it was proposed to design an electric power operated fertiliser spreading machine which would help them to work easily in an environmentally-friendly way. The performance of modified solid fertiliser spreading machine equipped with air blower was evaluated on the basis of parameters, i.e., spreading distance, fertiliser discharge rate, spreading time, and operational labour cost involved in the process. From the experiments, it was found that this machine can spread the fertiliser (urea) up to an 8 m distance with discharge rate of 1,050 gm/min, which is more than enough for fertilisation for almost all types of crops. Using FSM, reduction in time required for fertilisation (66%) and operational labour cost (70%) was also observed as compared to the traditional method.

Keywords: agriculture; solid fertiliser; diammonium phosphate; DAP; urea; potassium chloride; KCl; spreading machine.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2021.116855

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2021 Vol.20 No.3/4, pp.264 - 278

Received: 05 Jan 2020
Accepted: 30 May 2020
Published online: 05 Aug 2021 *

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