Structural Evaluation of Four No-till Opener Sets on Planting

ABSTRACT: Planting without tillage, as a technological contribution to sustainable agriculture, depends on the production and use of inexpensive and efficient no-till planters. It is very important to identify some essential design factors to determine manufacturing criteria for inexpensive no-till planting machinery. Coulters are a component of no-till planter opener sets. The function of the coulter is primary cutting of the residue, both vertical (with root) and horizontal (without root). In this study the mechanisms of four kinds of no-till planters (two models with coulters and the others without) were compared by software simulation, static and dynamic analyses and farm experiments. The planters under investigation were Sfoggia Thesis Big 2.5(an Italian planter), Gaspardo Directa 300 Corsa (an Italian planter), Amazone NT250 (a Brazilian planter) and Agro Rhino Zero-Driller (an Indian planter). Due to the different design of the Agro Rhino opener set, its planting operation was simulated in a block of 200 square meters (2×100m) and compared with blocks of the same area. Residue levels for 20 samples with same random coordinates were investigated and instance blocks were estimated with the t-student test at 90% probability level. The results suggested that the model used in the initial conditions, in the reconstruction of Agro Rhino opener set can be used instead of a coulter as part of the opener set mechanism of no-till planters producing a type of reduced-tillage planter.