Design, manufacturing and preliminary evaluation of a wheeltrimmer

• Main Authors: Farshid Merrikh, Mohammad Kazem Araghi, Reza Bagheri, Bohlool Abbaszadeh
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands of Iran 2008-09-01
• Series: تحقیقات جنگل و صنوبر ایران
• Subjects: Weed; wheel trimmer; Seedling; Harvest; Medicinal plants
• Online Access: http://ijfpr.areeo.ac.ir/article_107993_c0ed7825f97f30d05df8dc91417687a8.pdf
• ISSN: 1735-0883; 2383-1146

Control of weed is one of the most important problems in the botanic gardens, tree nurseries and plant research centers which generally are man made with high cost and time investment. In this investigation a wheel trimmer (brush cutter) was designed and manufactured which not only is used for weed controlling but also is applicable for seedling and bush cutting, harvesting medicinal plants and lawn mowering. The process of design and manufacturing of this machine consist mechanism selection, calculation of required power, design of the power transmission mechanism, parts design, preparing 2nd and 3rd dimensional drafts, parts manufacturing and assembling. After manufacturing, investigation on application and comparing with other methods and machines especially for time efficiency has been done. Results showed that cultivating, forage harvesting in agroforestry field, medicinal plants harvesting and mowering of old, bushy and uneven lawn are applicable and has better time efficiency compare to manual and other general methods. In bushy nurseries with high density of narrow and high young seedlings, using of this machine with circular saw blade has more efficiency in comparison to chain saw. However, in low density nurseries with thick seedlings (diameter more than 5 cm), chain saw is applicable. This wheel trimmer is a multi purpose machine with four kind knives. It is cheap, high efficient, safe and suitable for gardens, plant research centers and nurseries with low maintenance and repairing costs.