BAHIR DAR UNIVERSITY

BAHIR DAR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL
ENGINEERING
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
AGRICULTURAL MACHINARY TECHNOLOGY
REPORT I
Hamdu getachew 1102438 Eyoel mekennnen 1108684
Bekalu Daniel 1103529 Dagim Mekonnen 1103199
Ermias yilma 1108683 Yosef Tesfaye 1102966
Medhanit kiros 1103006 Betsegaw G/eyese 1102980
Mikael seyfe 1103274
College Eyob 1103171

SUBMITTED TO: MR. SAMUEL G.

Tractors and agricultural machineries
Tractor
A tractor provides the power and traction to mechanize agricultural tasks, especially tillage.
Agricultural implements may be towed behind or mounted on the tractor, and the tractor may also
provide a source of power if the implement is mechanized. The most common use of the term
"tractor" is for the vehicles used on farms. The farm tractor is used for pulling or pushing
agricultural machinery or trailers, for plowing, tilling, disking, harrowing, planting, and similar
tasks. Planting, tending and harvesting a crop requires both a significant amount of power and a
suitable range of tools and equipment. Mechanization of farming has allowed an increase to the
area that can be planted and has contributed towards increased yields, mainly due to the precision
with which the farming tasks can be accomplished.
A tractor is consists of following main units:
1. Clutch
2. Transmission Gears and Torque Converter Gear
3. Differential Unit and Final Drive
4. Steering System and Brake Steering System
5. Hydraulic Control System
6. Hitch and Control Board of Tractor
7. Power Take-Off Unit (PTO)
8. Belt Pulley
9. Control Board or Dash Board of a Tractor
10. Tractor Tire and Front Axle.

1. Clutch:
Clutch is a device, used to connect and disconnect the tractor engine from the transmission gears
and drive wheels. Clutch transmits power by means of friction between driving members and
driven members.

2. Transmission Gears and Torque Converter Gear:

A tractor engine runs at high speed, but the rear wheel of the tractor requires power at low speed
and high torque. That’s why it becomes essential to reduce the engine speed and increase the torque
available at the rear wheels of the tractor.

Figure 1: transmission gearbox

3. Differential Unit and Final Drive:
Differential Unit:
Differential unit is a special arrangement of gears to permit one of the rear wheels of the tractor to
rotate slower or faster than the other. While turning the tractor on a curved path, the inner wheel
has to travel lesser distance than the outer wheel.

Differential Lock:
Differential lock is a device to join both half axles of the tractor so that even if one wheel is under
less resistance, the tractor comes out from the mud etc. as both wheels move with the same speed
and apply equal traction.

Final Drive:
Final drive is a gear reduction unit in the power trains between the Differential and the Drive
wheels. Final drive transmits the power finally to the rear axle and the wheels. The tractor rear
wheels are not directly attached to the half shafts but the drive is taken through a pair of spur gears.
Each half shaft terminates in a small gear which meshes with a large gear called Bull gear. The
Bull gear is mounted on the shaft, carrying the tractor rear wheel. The device for final speed
reduction, suitable for tractor rear wheels is known as Final drive mechanism.

4. Steering System and Brake Steering System:

The system, governing the angular movement of front wheels of a tractor is called Steering system.
This system minimizes the efforts of the operator in turning the front wheel with the application
of leverages.

5. Hydraulic Control System:

It is a mechanism in a tractor to raise, hold or lower the mounted or semi-mounted equipment’s by
hydraulic means. All tractors are equipped with hydraulic control system for operating three-point
hitch of the tractor.

Working Principle:
The working principle of hydraulic system is based on Pascal’s law. This law states that the
pressure applied to an enclosed fluid is transmitted equally in all directions. Small force acting on
small area can produce higher force on a surface of larger area.
 Figure 2: hydraulic power transmission

6. Hitch and Control Board of Tractor:

Hitch:
Implements are needed to be hitched properly for efficient and safe operation of the tractor.

Implements can be:

1. Trailed
2. Semi-mounted and
3. Mounted
Implements can be hitched in two ways:
1. Drawbar hitch and
2. Three-point linkage

1. Drawbar Hitch:

Drawbar is a device by which the pulling power of the tractor is transmitted to the trailing
implement. It consists of a crossbar with suitable holes, attached to the lower hitch links. It is fitted
at the rear part of the tractor.

2. Three Point Linkage:

It is a combination of three links, one is upper link and two are lower links the links articulated to
the tractor and the implements at their ends in order to connect the implement to the tractor.

Advantage of Three Point Linkage:

I. Easy control of working implements
II. Quick setting of implements
III. Automatic hydraulic control of implements such as position control, draft controls
etc.
 IV. Good balancing of attached implements.

Implement Control:
The tractor with a built-in lift system is connected to the implement through a specific type of
mechanical linkage termed as Three-point linkage and the system is known as Mounted system.
The implement is connected to the tractor hydraulic system at two bottom links and one top link.
Both the bottom links are connected to two lift arms through lift links.

The lift arms are directly mounted on a rock shaft which is further connected to the piston rod.
Any movement of the piston is transferred to the bottom links. The top link is used for connecting
the third hitch point of the implement and is adjustable for maintaining the implement level and
suction angle. Load sensing for the draft control can also be done through the top link which is
spring loaded. In some tractors the lower links are spring loaded for draft sensing.

Depending upon the soil condition and type of operation the mounted implement can be controlled
either by Position control or Draft control.

Weight Transfer:
Rear part of the tractor is heavier than the front part to get higher tractive efficiency. However,
sufficient weight on the front axle is also required to facilitate easy steering and to compensate the
effect due to weight transfer. When the load is pulled, the tendency of front axle is to become light
by losing some weight and the same adds to the rear axle.

The higher the pull, the greater is the weight transfer. Mathematically this can be represented by-

Where, the line of pull is always assumed to be parallel to the ground.

7. Power Take-Off Unit (PTO):

It is a part of tractor transmission system. It consists of a shaft, a shield and a cover. The shaft is
externally splined to transmit torsional power to another machine. A rigid guard fitted on a tractor
covers the power take-off shaft as a safety device.
This guard is called power take-off shield. Agricultural machines are coupled with this shaft at the
rear part of the tractor. As per ASAE standard pto speed is 540 ± 10 rpm when operating under
load. In order to operate 1000 rpm PTO drive machine, a new standard has been developed.

Figure 3a: disassembled PTO shaft Figure 3b: assembled PTO shaft

8. Belt Pulley:
All tractors are provided with a belt pulley. The function of the pulley is to transmit power from
the tractor to stationary machinery by means of a belt. It is used to operate thresher, centrifugal
pumps, silage cutter and several other machines.

The pulley is located either on the left, right or rear side of the tractor. The pulley drive is engaged
or disengaged from the engine by means of a clutch. The pulley is generally made of cast iron or
cast steel.

9. Control Board or Dash Board of a Tractor:

The control board of a tractor generally consists of:
1. Main Switch: When the main switch is on, the electric current flows in the electrical
circuit.
2. Throttle Lever: This lever is for increasing or decreasing the speed of the engine.
 3. Decompression Lever: This lever releases compression pressure from the combustion
chamber of the engine and helps to start the engine.
4. Hour Meter: This meter indicates the engine hour as well as engine revolution per
minute.
5. Light Switch: Light switch is for light points only.
6. Horn Hutton: This is for horn of the tractor.
7. Battery Charging Indicator: This indicates the charge and discharge of the battery.
8. Oil Pressure Indicator: This indicates the lubricating oil pressure in the system.
9. Water Temperature Gauge: This indicates the temperature of water of the cooling
system.

10. Tractor Tire and Front Axle:

Tire:
The tires are available in many sizes with the ply ratings as 4, 6 or 8. The ply rating of tires indicates
the comparative strength of tires. The higher the rating, the stronger are the tires. The inflation
pressure in the rear wheels of the tractor varies between 0.8 to 1.5 kg/cm2. The inflation pressure
of the front wheel varies from 1.5 to 2.5 kg/cm2. Useful life of the pneumatic tires under normal
operating condition may be about 6000 working hours for drawbar work.
Front Axle:
Front axle is the unit on which front wheel is mounted. This wheel is an idler wheel by which
tractor is steered in various directions. The axle is a rigid tubular or I-section steel construction
pivoted at the center.

Ways of making traction on tire and balancing on tractor

A. Ballast
The right ballasting for tractors depends on many factors. Generally speaking though, the tractor
should be as least ballasted as possible, if the ballast is not really needed. Each pound that needs
to be moved forward needs energy during acceleration, creates more energy during braking, creates
a longer stopping distance on average, and creates more soil compaction during operation on wet
soil conditions.

However, there are certain applications and operations where ballasting is needed and reasonable.
Those situations can be clustered in two main topics:

1. To prevent an unbalanced situation on the tractor, e.g. when working with a heavy front
loader and adding ballast in the rear hitch or on the rear axle, or when using a front ballast
as a counterweight for a heavy rear hitch. With higher loads on one end, the maximum
 speed may be reduced for both the axle and the tires. Ballasting can help counter this
unbalance to lessen the need to lower speed.
2. To make the tractor heavier to transmit more force to the soil, e.g. for implements with
lower working speed like a plow where the operational speed is less than 6 mph. Here, all

Figure 4: ballast

the engine power is transformed into a high torque on the axles, which means high forces
in the contact patch between tire and soil. In this instance more weight means better grip
for force transmission to the ground.

B. Fluid Inflated tire

The weight of the water ballasts the tractor, which gives the tires greater traction capacity and helps
prevent the tires from slipping.

C. Add weight on the rear wheel: weights are added to the wheel for a better traction control

Figure 5: Wheel ballast

Tractor implements

Moldboard plow
Moldboard plows are:
 One of the oldest of all agricultural implements
 It is considered to be the most important tillage implement
 It consumes more traction energy than any other operation
 It cuts loose the furrow slice, inverts the furrow slice more or less in pulverized form
 It is used for covering grass into soil immediately after rains

Figure 6: moldboard plow

Disc Plough
The disc plough is such a farm implement, which is designed to work in all types of soil for
functions. This Disc Plough used to break the hardpan of new fields and to work in the stony areas.
Plough can be used easily in rocky and rooted areas. It is especially useful in hard and dry trashy
farmland conditions and in soils where scouring is a big issue. Plough is being produced with 2-3-
4 and 5 bottoms with an option for an extra kit for furrow.

The disc plough’s is a rolling type plough, but the MB plough is not like that, which is dragged
inside the soil. The soil in which MB plough is either difficult or not advisable to operate in this
soil disc plough could be easily operable. This plough creates no suction. Disc plough’s penetration
depends on the disc angles and the weight on the plough.

Plough inverts the soil pan when used with scrapers. It cannot be used at high speed because for
cutting action slow speed is necessary.
Disc Plough Advantages

 Plough can operate in sticky and non-scouring soil

 Disc Plough can work in dry and hard soil
 Plough can ride over the stones or stumps than try to penetrate or uproot them
 Plough can be used effectively after the crop is harvested and the ground is hard
 Plough can be used for deep ploughing
 The life of the disc is much more than that of the MB plough
 Less specific draft or unit draft compared to MB plough
Disc Plough Standard Parts

Disc of Disc Plough

The discs on a plough are mounted on bearings. Disc depth of cut 1/3rd of disc diameter and disc
width of cut is 0.4 times the disc diameter.

They specified in terms of diameter and edge thickness i.e. 26 x 3/16 where 26 inches and 3/16
inch are diameter and thickness of the disc material in inches.

Discs could lift, pulverize, partially invert and throw the soil to an open furrow at one side Shallow
concavity permits a greater angle to the line of travel.

Scraper
 It is the most essential part of each disc because each disc has one scraper Gives a good turning
effect for better coverage.
 Disc to get a better pulverization it is important to clean.
 Scrapers to place low to catch and turn the furrow slice before it falls away from the disc.

Plough frame

 Standards are attached to plough frame. The frame has the provision of adjustment of disc
angle, adding weights.

Cross shaft

 Positioned at the extreme front of the plough & at a right angle to the frame. Ends of the cross
shaft are cranked to which the lower links are attached.

Disc bearing

 Tapped roller bearings are used to take the soil trust load.

Figure 7: Disk plough

Trailer
It is one of agricultural machine that are connected to the tractor by three hinge linkage. It is
used to transfer materials and peoples place to place.

Figure 8: Trailer

Power transmission methods

V-belts

The V-belt acts as a transmission belt. Connecting the V-belt pulleys, it transmits the force from
the engine to the ancillary components including the alternator, the hydraulic pump for the power
steering and to other agricultural machinery.

V belts (also style V-belts, vee belts, rubber belts or, less commonly, wedge rope) solved the
slippage and alignment problem. It is now the basic belt for power transmission. They provide the
best combination of traction, speed of movement, load of the bearings, and long service life. They
are generally endless, and their general cross-section shape is roughly trapezoidal (hence the name
"V"). The "V" shape of the belt tracks in a mating groove in the pulley (or sheave), with the result
that the belt cannot slip off. The belt also tends to wedge into the groove as the load increases—
the greater the load, the greater the wedging action—improving torque transmission and making
the V-belt an effective solution, needing less width and tension than flat belts.
It is used to for power transmission. It does not used for accuracy machines like planting.

Figure 9: V-Belt

Chains
It is used to transmit high torque with less speed. It is more accurate than v belt. This type of belt
is used for planting, harvesting, threshing. Unlike v-belts chains have a good abrasive and impact
resistance. On the other hand, this chain needs to daub grease lubrication frequently to maintain.

Figure 10: Chain