Abstract
This study was carried out to develop a self-propelled type explosive subsoiler for improving the root zone soil conditions in orchard and other forest fields. Prototype was designed to be able to inject air and other soil improving material such as lime into soil at the same time, and thus improve the air permeability and drainage of orchard soils to promote the root growth of tree for high quality fruit production. Soil penetration device of explosive subsoiler is composed of air hammer, penetration rob and air injection nozzle. To support the soil penetration device of explosive subsoiler to penetrate vertically, modified Scott-Russel mechanism was used. Timing control device for simultaneous injection of soil improving material with air was attached to the out side wall of air cylinder and as the cylinder move, the soil improving material was injected into soil at the same time. Turning radius of prototype was 2.2-2.3 m with good mobility in sloped land. It took approximately 1 minute for lime injection system to reach the optimum pressure of 9.9 kg/$cm^2$, average 10-20 seconds were required to rupture soil with the depth of 50 cm and 2-3 seconds were required for explosion, so all in all about 1 minute and 20 seconds were required for one cycle of explosion. Maximum soil rupture depth and diameter were 50 cm and 3-4 m respectively depending on the soil type and soil moisture content. For final design of explosive subsoiler inclination angle of lime hopper was increased from 60 degree to 70 degree and the shape of hopper was changed from rectangular cone to circular cone to solve the clogging problem of lime at out let. Agitating system operated by compressed air was attached to the metering device of the prototype, thus more than 90 cc of lime was discharged per cycle from metering device without clogging problems.
