Development of a Novel Sugar Cane Planter for Bud Chip as Planting Material
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Abstract
The objects of the present research are the development of a novel sugar cane planter for bud chip as planting material and analysis of engineering economics of the developed machine. Technically, the developed machine is operated with a 30-horsepower tractor and it is designed a 1-furrow planter. The main components of the machine consist of a furrow opener, a planting material-sending tube, the mainframe, a bucket conveyor, a planting material hopper, a fertilizer hopper, a fertilizer distributor, covering discs and a press wheel. Before operating the machine, practically, it is necessary to prepare a sugar cane bud chip by using a bud chip cutter developed by our research team. After that, the cut bud chip is loaded into a planting material hopper of the machine to be planted in the field by the machine. According to testing results by operating the machine with four different forward speeds, it was found that the machine was able to move and operate suitably at an operating speed of a 3th-low gear of a tractor. At this operating speed, the developed machine had a theoretical field capacity of 1.89 rai per hour, an effective field capacity of 1.25 rai per hour and a field efficiency of 66%. Regarding engineering economics analysis of the developed machine, it indicated that the cost of using the machine was equal to 192.9 Baht per hour. The break-even point and payback period were equal to 92.04 rai per year and 0.82 years, respectively.
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