Design & Fabrication of Weeder & Cutter Machine

Mechanical Engineering

Weed management is one of the tedious operations in vegetable production. Because of labor costs, time and tedium, manual weeding is unfavorable. A mechanical weeding actuation system was designed, and a prototype was constructed. This actuator was developed to mechanically control intra-row weed plants. The mechanical weeding actuator consisted of a belt drive system powered by an integrated engine and a rotating tine weeding mechanism powered by engine power. Weed control is one of the most difficult tasks on an agricultural farm. Three methods of weed control are commonly known in agriculture. These are mechanical, chemical and biological control. Mechanical weed control is easily adopted by farmers once they get convened of its advantages. Mechanical weed control not only uproots the weeds between the crop rows but also keeps the soil surface loose, ensuring better soil aeration and water intake capacity. Various types of mechanical weeders have been developed. In human operated weeders, muscle power is required and so it cannot be operated for long time. The traditional method of hand weeding is time consuming. In order to assess the possibility of mechanization of the weeding operation, the power operated single row active weeder is to be designed and developed.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.