Performance Evaluation of Battery-Operated Power Weeder
S. PANDEY
Department of Farm Machinery & Power Engineering, College of Technology and Engineering, MPUAT, Udaipur-313001, India
Corresponding author
G. S. TIWARI
Department of Farm Machinery & Power Engineering, College of Technology and Engineering, MPUAT, Udaipur-313001, India
A. K. SHARMA
Department of Farm Machinery & Power Engineering, College of Technology and Engineering, MPUAT, Udaipur-313001, India
Abstract
The mechanical weed management systems hold promise toward reducing the drudging task of hand weeding. A battery-operated power weeder was evaluated in soybean crop for V-type and straight blade. The average weeding efficiency, field capacity, field efficiency, percentage plant damage, and performance index of V-type blade were found 91.42 %, %, 0.051 ha/h, 90.73 %, 2.37 % and 2496.30, whereas straight blade 86.78 %, 0.048 ha/h, 88.50 %, 3.55 %, and 1497.04 respectively at the operating speed of 2-3 km/h. The average power consumption of V-type blade and straight blade was found to be 185.6 and 262.5 W. The average draft force 269 and 391 were observed with V-type and straight blades. The performance of the V-blade was found better over the straight blade. The overall performance of the developed machine was found satisfactory for small farmers.