Multi Orchard Sprayer
It is suitable for spraying chemicals in orchards like grapes, citrus, pomegranate etc. It consists of an HTP (horizontal triplex piston) pump, trailed type main chassis with transport wheels, chemical tank with hydraulic agitation system, cut-off device and boom equipped with turbo nozzles. It is fitted with turbo nozzles operating at a pressure of 883-1766 kPa and generates droplets of 100-150 micron in size. The orientation of booms can be adjusted depending upon the plant size and their row spacing. The spray booms are mounted behind the operator. The boom covers half of the tree canopy on either side of the sprayer. It costs Rs. 60,000/-and can cover 0.40-0.70 ha/h at forward speed of 1.20-1.50 km/h.
The sprayer essentially consists of a tank made of fibre glass or plastic, pump assembly, suction pipe with strainer, pressure gauges, pressure regulators, air chamber, delivery pipe and spray boom fitted with nozzles. The sprayer is mounted on 3-point linkages of the tractor and utilizes PTO power of the tractor to operate the pump of the sprayer. It uses high pressure and high discharge pump as the number of nozzles may be up to 20 depending upon the crop and make of the sprayer. Basically the spray boom can be arranged in two ways viz ground spray boom and overhead spray boom. For ground spray boom, the planting has to be done in rows keeping in view of track width of the tractor. The overhead spray boom is designed for tall field crops and planting is done in such a way that it leaves an unplanted strip of about 2.5 m width for operation of the tractor. Therefore, a planted strip may be 18-20 m wide and a fallow strip has to be left for tractor operation after every planted strip. There is a provision of raising the height of boom with increase in crop height.
Tractor Operated Aero Blast Sprayer
The machine consists of a tank of 400 litre capacity, pump, fan, control valve, filling unit, spout adjustable handle and spraying nozzles. The nozzles release the pesticide solution into stream of air blast produced by the centrifugal blower. The air blast distributes chemical in the form of very fine particles throughout its swath on one side of tractor. The major portion of swath is covered by the main blast through the main spout and auxiliary nozzles cover the swath area near the tractor. The sprayer is mounted on the tractor 3-point linkage and operated by tractor PTO. The orientation of air outlet can be adjusted for its direction and width of coverage. The machine can cover about 1.7 ha/h at a speed of 1.5 km/h. The application rate of sprayer can be varied from 100 to 400 l/ha depending upon different valve settings. Effective width of sprayer is about 13.0 m. The unit price of aeroblast sprayer is Rs 1.00 lakh. The cost of operation of this machine is Rs. 500/ha as against Rs. 700/ha by conventional method.
Ultrasonic Sensor based Pomegranate Spraying System
A sensor based tractor mounted automatic spraying system has been developed at IIT Kharagpur for detection of plant canopy and spraying of liquid chemical over the detected plant canopy. The developed sprayer consists of ultrasonic sensors, micro-controller board, solenoid valves, one way valves, spray pump, pressure gauge, relief valve, nozzle and 12 V battery. The sensor, programmer and non-return valve are attached to commercial ASPEE air assisted spraying system for evaluating at MPKV Rahuri pomegranate research farm. In order to make the pomegranate sprayer independent of operating speed, a ground wheel with proximity sensor is attached to the spraying unit. The spraying system is tested with and without sensor with attachment of turbo and hollow cone nozzles. The effective field capacity and number of plants covered are 0.88 ha/h and 1370 plants/h, respectively. The application rate is found maximum (500 l/ha) for turbo nozzles without sensor and minimum (200 l/ha) for hollow cone nozzle with sensor. The percentage saving of liquid with the sprayer is 25-30% and 45-50% with turbo nozzles and hollow cone nozzles, respectively.