THE RESULTS OF RESEARCH FOR IMPROVING THE WORKING TOOL OF THE MINERAL FERTILIZER SPREADER

Most of the currently used machines for applying mineral fertilizers with a centrifugal working body are not able to provide sufficient uniformity in the distribution of granular fertilizers at high speeds. It was found in the course of the study that the use of a working body with helical blades instead of straight ones improves the quality of fertilizer application, and the supply of helical blades with straight adjustable blades makes it possible to use such a working body at higher spreading speeds. The developed prototype was tested, along with a serial Jar-Met spreader disc, under various operating modes: machine speed - in the range from 4 km/h to 16 km/h, blade angle from 0 to 20 degrees at the laboratory test complex. The dispersion of the mass of fertilizers per reference area was chosen as an optimization parameter: the smaller it is, the higher the uniformity of fertilizer distribution over the surface. Experimental studies have shown that this parameter of the developed working body of the spreader is several times lower than that of the serial sample. The application of the developed working body of the mineral fertilizer spreader in practice confirmed the results of an experimental study: the wheat yield increased by 6.4 q/ha. The proposed working body makes it possible to distribute mineral fertilizers over the field surface at higher speeds with better uniformity, which ensures top dressing without skipping each plant at a 23.1% higher productivity of the unit. The annual economic effect per one modernized spreader at the doses of mineral fertilizers established in the farm amounted to 96.7 thousand rubles per 1 ha of agricultural land.