• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.153-160
• /
• 2016

Purpose: This study was conducted to experimentally investigate the structural safety of and identify critical locations in a front-end loader under impact loads. Methods: Impact and static tests were conducted on a commonly used front-end loader mounted on a tractor. In the impact test, the bucket of the front-end loader with maximum live load was raised to its maximum lift height and was allowed to free fall to a height of 500 mm above the ground where it was stopped abruptly. For the static test, the bucket with maximum live load was raised and held at the maximum lift height, median height, and a height of 500 mm from the ground. Strain gages were attached at twenty-three main locations on the front-end loader, and the maximum stresses and strains were measured during respective impact and static tests. Results: Stresses and strains at the same location on the loader were higher in the impact test than in the static test, for most of measurement locations. This indicated that the front-end loader was put under a severe environment during impact loading. The safety factors for stresses were higher than 1.0 at all locations during impact and static tests. Conclusions: Since the lowest safety factor was higher than 1.0, the front-end loader was considered as structurally safe under impact loads. However, caution must be exercised at the locations having relatively low safety factors because failure may occur at these locations under high impact loads. These important design locations were identified to be the bucket link elements and the connection elements between the tractor frame and front-end loader. A robust design is required for these elements because of their high failure probability caused by excessive impact stress.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.613-627
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to design a powertrain for a 78 kW AWD (all wheel drive) electric tractor by analyzing the combination of various reduction gear ratios on a commercial motor using data from actual agricultural work and driving conditions. A load measurement system was constructed to collect data using wheel torque meters, proximity sensors, and a data acquisition system. Field experiments for measuring load data were performed for two environmental driving conditions (on asphalt and soil) and four agricultural operations (plow tillage, rotary tillage, loader operation, and baler operation). The attached implements and gear stages were selected through farmer surveys. The range of the reduction ratio was determined by selecting the minimum reduction ratio needed to satisfy the torque condition required for agricultural operations and the maximum reduction gear ratio to satisfy the maximum travel speed. The minimum reduction gear ratio selected was 57 in consideration of the working load condition and the maximum reduction gear ratio selected was 62 considering the maximum running speed. In the range of the reduction gear ratio 57 - 62, the selected motor satisfied all working torque conditions. As a result, the combination of the selected motor and reduction gear ratio was applicable for satisfying the loads required during agricultural operation and driving operation.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.48 no.1
• /
• pp.141-149
• /
• 2021

The cultivation area for domestic cabbage increased by 26.3% from 10,968 ha in 2019 to 13,854 ha in 2020, and among leafy vegetables, the cabbage cultivation area was 62%, and production was 78.9%. Demand for field crop production of cabbage, which has a relatively high-income level compared to rice farming, is increasing, and mechanization of the field operation is urgently needed due to the insufficient development of related farming machinery. In this study, a prototype fabrication and performance test of a tractor-attached cabbage collector was carried out. The transport section was divided into two parts, one for the feeding and transportation and the other for the screening and packaging to selectively collect cabbages in bulk bags or boxes. The length of the primary collecting conveyor was designed to meet the field conditions of the Korean cabbage cultivation standards so that six cultivation rows could be worked simultaneously. Power was controlled by a hydraulic transmission line of the tractor and was easily mounted onto the 3-point hitch links behind the tractor. When the performance was evaluated, the transfer rate, loss rate, damage rate, and work performance were 100, 0, 1.2%, and 1.9 h·10 a^-1. Final improvement and commercialization of the prototype would considerably contribute to the mechanization of harvesting cabbage, the main ingredient of Kimchi.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.108 no.4
• /
• pp.562-573
• /
• 2019

In a cable yarding system, a small-scale tower yarder attached to a farm tractor wasdeveloped and used for small-diameter tree harvesting operations. Based on this design, improvement of traction performance was required for medium- and large-diameter tree harvesting operations. In this study, the mechanical transmission employed for the tower yarder was modified into ahydro-mechanical transmission system. Maximum traction forces, including tractor engine speed and hydraulic power pressure, were investigated, and comparisons were made between the mechanical and hydro-mechanical transmission systems. Six tractor engine speeds (1,200, 1,400, 1,600, 1,800, 2,000, and 2,200) and three levels of power transmission mechanism pressure (4.9, 6.9, and 8.8 MPa) were investigated in the two different transmission systems. Results showed a maximum traction force of 15,146.6 N at an engine rotation speed of 757 rpm in the current mechanical transmission system, and 36,140.0 N at anengine rotation speed of 1,575 rpm in the modified hydro-mechanical transmission system. The maximum traction forces for the hydro-mechanical transmission were 2.4 times greater than those of the mechanical transmission, and may therefore be applicable to medium and large-diameter tree harvesting operations. Thus,as a modified version of the conventional transmission system, the new hydro-mechanical transmission system may be cost-effective for use in large-scale cable yarding operations. In the future, however, it will be necessary to investigate problems that may arise from field application tests.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.195-202
• /
• 2002

In order to make a winter cereal wrap silage, a tractor attached round bale wrapper was developed locally. Its specific structure and various functions were reported in the last submitted paper. In this study a control system of bale wrapper combining with the actuators of various processes was developed to make round bale wrapper compatible in the field. Also. its performance was tested by making the rye round bale. The results can be summarized as fellow. 1. The field capacity of round bale wrapping was investigated around 0.5 ha/hr, and the operating time of bale wrapper was about 3 min for each 500kg round bale 2. Plastic film which has maximum elongation rate of 796% was stretched to 150∼170% of original length and was lessened to 80∼90% of original width. 3. In the quality test of bale produced by developed bale wrapper, there was no significant changes of moisture contents if it was wrapped more than 4 layers of 25 ㎛-plastic film. 4. Also. temperature of the wrapped bale was about 33$\^{C}$ in the beginning of fermentation and was stabled to 26∼29$\^{C}$ during one month or more storage. Therefore, wrapping performance of the developed bale wrapper was properly.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.24-29
• /
• 2020

In South Korea, agricultural mechanization has been carried out in paddy field, but not in the upland field during recent decades. Among crops such as root vegetables, leafy vegetables from upland field, corn is used as forage for livestock as well as food for men. The corn harvester needs to be developed to replace men's labor in rural area to follow the recent needs in the farm industry. The corn harvester is comprised of three parts such as cutting part, feeding part and pick-up part. The feeding part is so long for cut corns to be delivered from the cutting part to the pick-up part. Structurally, the load from the long moment arm is likely to be big. Thus, the setup to measure the stress on the duct of the feeding part was configured with the data acquisition system. The strain gages were attached on several points that seem to be loaded a lot comparatively. The stress was measured and the measured stresses were divided by the yield stress to get the safety factor. And then, we made sure the safety factors were above 1 on the all points. In conclusion, the feeding part of the corn harvester which convey the cut corn from the cutting part from the pick-up part can be regarded to be made safe structurally.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.62 no.4
• /
• pp.63-73
• /
• 2020

The area of paddy fields for upland crop cultivation is gradually increasing. In this context, we developed a chain type mole drainer that can be attached to a tractor to prevent the wet injury of crops. To conduct a field test, we formed underdrains at 2 m intervals in a paddy field wherein soybeans are cultivated, and we investigated the status of the soil moisture, groundwater level, and soybean growth during the cultivation period. The soil moisture content decreased by 22.3~26.8% in the test plot and by 5.9~6.9% in the control plot during a period of 57~88 hour after a rainfall of 41.5~157.0 mm. The effect of underdrainage was clear as the hourly groundwater level decreased approximately 2.8 times faster in the test plot compared with the control plot. Moreover, the soybean yield was greater by 78.6 kg/10a in the test plot than in the control plot. Therefore, for soybean cultivation in paddy fields, the use of the developed mole drainer is expected to help in improving the drainage and increasing the soybean yield.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.11-18
• /
• 2002

One of the major obstructing factors against managing dairy farm in Korea has been a shortage of roughage supply, which resulted in excessive abuse of concentrate feed. In order to solve this problem, production of the wrap silage by the winter cereal forages raised in the fallow paddy field is strongly recommended in Korea. The main objective is to develop a tractor attached round bale wrapper which can process the silage by wrapping the round bales with thin plastic films. This is the first half of the study which is divided by two parts. In this first part, bale wrapping process was analyzed, and based on this results the followings were designed, developed and tested. 1. Bale wrapper which haying the maximum capacity of 1 ton bale with various functions such as loading, wrapping, discharging the round bales and supplying and cutting wrap films was designed. 2. An actuator and its hydraulic circuit of each process were developed and tested. 3. Also, the variations of hydraulic pressure and engine speed were investigated by operating bale wrapper developed. In this test, maximum pressure of the hydraulic circuit for the bale wrapping was 130 kg/㎠ when it raised the bale, which was quite below the relief pressure of 170 kg/㎠ of hydraulic circuit. In the engine speed test, speed drop was 20∼67 rpm, which meant that there was no over-load operation. Therefore, the experiment proved that developed hydraulic circuit and mechanism is stable in bale wrapping operation

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.229-238
• /
• 2015

This study was conducted to develop electronic control system of weeding implement that can operated at various areas such as slope land and inclined road side. The weeding implement consists of five main parts; the electronic control system, the hydraulic system, the main frame, the boom and arm mechanism, and the rotary type weeder. And the weeding implement was developed to be attached by three-point hitch of tractor considering the use of electronic control system. As a result, the electronic control test was conducted with the weeding implement attached to tractor in slope land. The results of the electronic control system test showed satisfactory weeding performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.26-32
• /
• 2019

This study was conducted to analyze the stresses by impact loads on front-end loaders attached to tractors using flexible multi-body dynamics. The model was designed and validated by comparing previous experimental data with the simulation data obtained in this study. Nine sets of conditions were designed using three weights (500, 300, and 100 kg) loaded inside a bucket and three heights (1700, 1350, and 1000 mm) of the bucket from ground level. A parametric study was carried out at five locations for two types of parts of a front-end loader. All the safety factors for the five locations under all conditions were calculated and were greater than 1. Thus, the designs of the front-end loaders were structurally safe. Based on this study, front-end loaders attached to tractors can be designed effectively in terms of cost and safety.