PROMISING SOIL TILLAGE TOOLS
Over the past decades, the increasing interest in making the soil tillage in crop farming more energy efficient contributed to the widespread use of various methods for designing novel tillage tools and machines. The development of promising and improvement of already in place tools and units that could ensure energy efficiency and environmental safety of tillage techniques is an important task of today. The study objects were the technological process and tools for surface and shallow tillage, and the weed control. The study used the methods of energy assessment of tillage tools and machines, analysis and generalization of the outcomes of theoretical and experimental investigations. Prototypes of new tools were developed and manufactured. Their main advantages against the standard ones are the adaptability and self-adjustment of their structure to soil conditions. This ensures lower energy intensity and improved tillage quality. The study considered the operation of ring-shaped tools, which break the large lumps and clots when loosening the soil. The ring in the form of a truncated cone and simultaneous use of a toothed spherical disk reduce the weed infestation of fields. The experiments established that the ring-shaped tools ensured the complete weed destruction, with the soil crumbling degree being 90.3%. A comparison of new tools with dynamic properties and standard tools showed that the specific traction resistance per unit of the active frontal area of the developed tools is 11.07% lower than that of typical tools. Within working speeds from 1.70 to 2.80 m/s, the use of dynamic tillage tools provides fuel savings of 0.23 to 0.28 kg per 1 ha of cultivated area. The efficiency of U-shaped tools for unstriped surface tillage of soil various types to a depth of 20 cm is ensured by applying the principle of soil layer compression. The experiments established that when the travelling speed of tractor/implement system with U-shaped tools increased from 1.28 to 1.93 m/s, its productivity raised from 0.88 to 1.33 ha/h, i.e. by 50.8% and the traction efficiency of the tractor - from 0.268 to 0.455 , i.e. by 69.8%, which ensured the maximum soil crumbling degree. At the same time, the fuel consumption per 1 ha of cultivated area decreased by 11%. The study substantiated the structural and technological parameters of the tool for soil loosening and control of weeds with a powerful root system. The tool is a crescent-shaped one-sided paw with an elastic element that creates self-oscillations to prevent soil and plants from sticking to the wing and to improve the cutting of plants and soil loosening. The total cutting of weeds was 100%. The traction resistance was in the range from 1.43 to 1.91 kN at a speed of 5 to 12 km/h.