DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF WHEEL DRIVEN SPRAYER

V. Pranavamoorthi 1 , R. Pravinyadav 1 , D. Sivaramakrishnan 1 , V. Tamilarasan 1 , Mr. A. Mahabubadsha 2 and Dr. K. Anandavelu 3 . 1. Final Year Mechanical Engineering, M.R.K Institute of Technology, Kattumannarkoil, Tamilnadu, India 2. Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, M.R.K Institute of Technology, Kattumannarkoil, Tamilnadu, India. 3. Professor, Mechanical Engineering, M.R.K Institute of Technology, Kattumannarkoil, Tamilnadu, India ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History

India is said to be an agricultural base country directly or indirectly 75% of the peoples are dependent on farming, in this agriculture sector there is a lot of field work, such as weeding, reaping, sowing etc. Apart from these operations, spraying is also an important operation to be performed by the farmer to protect the cultivated crops from insects, pests, fungi and diseases for which various insecticides, pesticides, fungicides and nutrients are sprayed on crops for protection. In today's world, one use many different spraying technologies using energies like electrical energy, solar energy, and chemical energy of fuels. This fact makes one know that how large amount of energy is getting used at such place where mechanical energy can be used instead of direct energy sources. Farmers are facing enormous problem while spraying the pesticide like tank capacity is very small, high cost and spaying time taken more. In order to reduce problems different type of sprayers has been introduced in the market, but these devices do not meet the specified problems or demands of the farmers. To solve these difficulties a new equipment that is mechanically operated wheel driven sprayer, it is a portable device and does not need any fuel to operate, which is easy to move and spray the pesticide by moving the wheel is to be developed. This wheel operated pesticide spray equipment consumes less time and achieves uniform nozzle pressure; crank mechanism with piston pump which is driven by the wheel is also used. The main aim of the paper is to be develop a low cost mechanically operated sprayer pump for Indian middle scale farmers. The device has been validated with the user group and got good feedback from the user.
In the modern agriculture, the usage of pesticides is still increasing.Moreover 90% of these pesticides are being applied in the form of spraying which maintains a environment friendly approach. The argument for using existing conventional equipment is that farmers will face economic difficulties in case of chemical and electrical powered pumps and will also face health issues in case of hand operated pumps. One way to overcome this problem is the use of equipment developed for application of the pesticides through the use of mechanical power. In selecting a pump for furnishing a supply of pesticides for farm use, or for spraying insecticides, herbicides or fungicides, one may be sure that it was designed for the job to be done. The unit should have sufficient capacity to supply the needed amount of water and spray material in the allowable time.
Methods and Methodology:- Data collection would be done by literature survey, user study and market study through questionnaires, videos and observation etc.  QFD generation based on the user requirements and corresponding technical requirements, and PDS would be generated by prioritizing the features in the QFD  Concepts would be generated by sketching and digital Modeling  Generate the doodle sketches and come out with five concepts and the digital model will be created with the detailed features using CATIA software.  Concept evaluated and final concept selected using weighted ranking method  Working model would be made with detailed features and feedback would be collected.
Literature Survey:-Sudduth K.A., Borgelt S.C., Hou J., (1995) Performance of a chemical injection sprayer system, Abstract -Performance of a chemical injection sprayer system, found the time delay of concentrated pesticides through injection sprayers to be significant, and proposed injection at the individual nozzles as a possible solution to shorten delays. Development of a direct nozzle injection system that overcame the concentration variation problems reported by previous researchers. Simulation are used to compare chemical application accuracies for various designs of injection sprayers. They found that reducing the diameter of the fluid lines near the end of the spray booms improved overall application accuracy.
Way T.R., Von Bargen K., Grisso R.D., Bashford L.L., (1992) Simulation of chemical application accuracy for injection sprayers. Abstract -An autonomous mobile robot for use in pest control and disease prevention applications in commercial greenhouses. They develop the robot platforms ability to successfully navigate itself down rows of a greenhouse, while the pesticide spraying system efficiently covers the plants evenly with spray in the set dosages. The main application of robots in the commercial sector has been concerned with the substitution of manual human labour by robots or mechanized systems to make the work more time efficient, accurate, uniform and less costly.

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Air chamber:-In a reciprocate type pump, an air chamber is provided on the release line of the pump to level out the pulsations of the pump and thus given that an invariable nozzle pressure. User Findings:- Most of the farmers are using knapsack motorized sprayers  The product and maintenance cost were so high and also fuel were required to run the motor  For electrically operated sprayers life span is less and sometime process will not complete due to battery storage and also the cost is little high  Knapsack hand operated sprayers have less operating cost and the products cost is also not high but the effect of the product on him human health is more because it hold on backbone and was operated by hand continually.

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 Sprayers have operated by solar battery ever costly are not affordable by farmers.

Quality Function Deployment (QFD):-
QFD has been developed for converting customer voice into technical voice. Attributes are prioritized and ratings are given in order to define the relations between them are as shown in Table 1. The Product Design Specification (PDS) is tabulated in Table 2.

Concept Generation And Selection:-Concept Generation;-
Five concepts were generated considering various factors which meet the PDS like functionality, safety and cost. Final concept was selected and the working prototype model was build.
Push Type Sprayer:-Features of this concept like hand operated hydraulic pump and lever is connected to crack by link. The existing tank (10-16 liters) focusing on new mechanism is to be used as shown in Fig. 2.

Sprayer With Out Stand:-
The frame design is to changed increase aesthetic look of the product and adjustable height support stand as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4:-Sprayer With Out Stand
Multi Nozzle Operated Sprayer:-Concept 4 look like concept 3 but for easy movement and support two small wheels were included.It is easy to spray for any height crops because Adjustable height support stand will included as shown in Fig. 5. The product can spray pesticide over multiple rows of plants in one pass there by reducing manual effort.

Fig. 5:-Multi Nozzle Operated Sprayer
Concept Selection:-Weighted ranking method was used (Table 3) to select the final concept for further development of the product. Table 3;-Concept selection chart Concept 4was selected for further development of the product and this will meet the PDS.

Multi Nozzle Operated Sprayer:-Project Concept:-
To overcome all the issues faced during spraying methods, a model running without any fuel and also easy to operate for a user was designed. In this model 1 find that a cam mounted on rear shaft which will actuate piston inside cylinder was used Fig. 6. Final Concept Detailing:-Piston and Cylinder assembly:-Cylinders made by brass were selected with Rubber pistons, because they are easily available and economical and also technically, they are easy in operation.

Tank design:-
Tank carry more fluid with less weight. A tank with 25 liter capacity is taken.

Nozzles:-
The standard nozzle selected are same as that are used in agricultural sprayers Handle design:-While designing the hand the ergonomic data is also considered.

Height Adjustable Support Stand:-
The Indian ergonomic data to adjust the height of the handle, so that users give more strength and support to the frame is also considered.

Working of Final Concept:-
When one push the sprayer trolley, work done by the wheels get transmitted first to cam and then to follower link, due to which the piston reciprocate and starts building pressure. Power is getting transferred to piston, at the same time a coulter come into action and its flaps starts their function. As the time passes, a strong pressure gets developed inside the cylinder as accumulator helps it in doing the process. As the pressure gets developed, nozzles start acting and they initiate spraying. During this time, a connecting link from coulter also moves its flaps rapidly and soil is taken to the roots of plants. Fig 7 shows the final working model.

Conclusion:-
No design is ever perfect for all the time; design needs to be changed as per the needs and wants of users. Inputs for new product development and or design improvements are obtained from the user's feedback and product evaluation with respect to user requirements. The major outcome from this effort of new product development is concluded below:  Working prototype of the mobile pesticide sprayer was designed and developed  The pesticide sprayer reduces back ache and shoulder pain while using the product  The cost of the product can be brought down if mass production can be considered.  The product can spray pesticide over multiple rows of plants in one pass there by reducing manual effort.  The concepts were analyzed with the viewers and feedback was obtained where a final concept was selected and it was redesigned to suit the user requirements.