Abstract:
Abstract: In the intertillage of sugarcane, the fertilizing with a low evenness and stability will lead to many problems, such as losing a lot of sugarcane seedlings, soil hardening, fertilizer wasting, lower fertilizer use efficiency, and higher input with lower output. So the research on the fertilizing device is vital to control the evenness and stability of fertilizing. This paper focused on improving the fertilizing evenness of 3ZSP-2 type sugarcane intertillage fertilizing hilling machine. The innovational scraper fertilizing device was independently designed. The single-factor experiment on the diameter of disk, rotation speed of disk, gap of scraper, angle of scraper, width of scraper and advancing velocity was conducted in the Tropical Agricultural Machinery Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Zhanjiang in April 2014. The pivotal parameters of technology in this study were that the tractor motive power ranged from 22 to 36 W, the working speed ranged from 2 to 5 km/h, the overall dimension was 2300 mm × 1100 mm × 1640 mm, the diameter of fertilizer box was 730 mm, the diameter of disk was 700 mm, the rotation speed of disk ranged from 6 to 14 rpm, the width of scraper was 45 mm, the angle of scraper ranged from 15° to 19°, and the advancing velocity ranged from 0.7 to 1.1 m/s. The results showed that, the width of scraper, the angle of scraper and the advancing speed had a significant impact on the fertilizing evenness, and the value ranges of the 3 factors were identified. The mathematical model between the 3 experimental factors of the fertilizing device and the evaluation index of fertilizing evenness was established by the experimental method of Box-Behnken design. The influence law of those parameters on the evenness of fertilizer ejecting was analyzed through the Statistical Analysis System. The result concluded that the evenness of fertilizer ejecting increased at first, and then decreased respectively with the increasing of the 3 parameters (the width of scraper ranging from 30 to 50 mm, the angle of scraper ranging from 15° to 19° and the advancing speed ranging from 0.7 to 1.1 m/s). The order of the factors affecting the fertilizing evenness was the width of scraper > the angle of scraper > the advancing velocity. When the interaction was considered, the width of scraper and the advancing velocity had a tremendous impact on the target value, and the width of scraper and the angle of scraper also had a significant effect on the fertilizing evenness. Under the conditions of the width of scraper of 48.4 mm, the angle of scraper of 16.5° and the advancing velocity of 1.09 m/s, which were the optimal parameter combination, the fertilizing evenness was 92.97%, the stability of furrow opening depth was 92.9%, and the coverage rate of fertilizer was 100%. The verification test of optimized fertilizing device was performed in an experimental field whose area was 0.12 hm2. Results indicated that, the test result of the optimized machine was consistent with the results of the response surface analysis. The fertilizing deepness of this machine was 17.8 cm, the fertilizing evenness was 92.97%, and the coefficient of stability was 92.9%. All these indices were much higher than the design indices and the original machine, and met the requirements of cultivating, fertilizing and hilling in sugarcane tillage. The optimized mechanism parameters of fertilizing device were found to be technically viable. This study provides a starting point for further research on the optimization design of 3ZSP-2 type sugarcane intertillage fertilizing hilling machine.