What are the Types of Agricultural Machinery?

What is Agricultural Machinery?

Agricultural machinery includes agricultural power machinery, farmland construction machinery, soil tillage machinery, planting, and fertilization machinery, plant protection machinery, farmland irrigation and drainage machinery, crop harvesting machinery, agricultural product processing machinery, animal husbandry machinery, agricultural transportation machinery, etc. Agricultural machinery in a broad sense includes forestry machinery, fishing machinery, and rural sideline machinery such as sericulture, beekeeping, and edible fungus cultivation. Agricultural machinery is a relative concept, which refers to the general term for all machinery used in agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, and fishery. Agricultural machinery belongs to the category of agricultural machinery. The promotion of the use of agricultural machinery is called agricultural mechanization. Machinery that powers a variety of agricultural machinery and agricultural installations. Agricultural power machinery mainly includes internal combustion engines and tractors equipped with internal combustion engines, as well as electric motors, wind turbines, water turbines, and various small generator sets. Diesel engines have the advantages of high thermal efficiency, good fuel economy, reliable operation, and good fire safety, and are most widely used in agricultural internal combustion engines and tractors. Gasoline engines are characterized by lightweight, good low-temperature starting performance, and smooth operation. They are mostly used in small agricultural machinery, such as rice transplanters, mobile plant protection machinery, and tea picking machines.

According to the situation of regional fuel supply, gas generators fueled by natural gas, oil-associated gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and producer gas can also be used according to local conditions. Diesel engines and gasoline engines can be modified to use gas fuels such as gas, or dual-fuel internal combustion engines that use gas and are ignited by diesel, as agricultural power machinery. Electric motors are mostly used to drive various agricultural machinery for stationary or indoor operations, such as agricultural product processing machinery and water pumps, as well as various operating machinery in greenhouses, warehouses, and livestock houses. In areas with water or wind resources, the use of wind turbines and water turbines to drive various fixed operating machinery can save petroleum fuel, and wind turbines equipped with water-lifting devices can provide water for humans and animals in grassland and pastoral areas. A small generator set is composed of an internal combustion engine, a wind turbine, or a water turbine and a generator to provide electricity for agricultural production and rural life in remote areas. Solar energy and biogas generated from rural waste materials can provide electricity through solar power generation devices, biogas generator sets, and biogas-diesel dual-fuel generator sets.

What is the Classification of Agricultural Machinery?

There are many types of agricultural machinery. According to various agronomic requirements or different aspects involved, the types of divisions are also different. Agricultural machinery mainly includes agricultural power machinery, farmland construction machinery, plowing machinery, land preparation machinery, planting, and fertilization machinery, plant protection machinery, farmland irrigation and drainage machinery, crop harvesting machinery, agricultural product processing machinery, animal husbandry machinery, and agricultural transportation machinery. Agricultural machinery includes forestry machinery, fishing machinery, sericulture, beekeeping, edible fungus cultivation, etc.

• Planter:
  A planter is a planting machine that uses crop seeds as the sowing object. Planters used for a certain type or crop are often named with the name of the crop type, such as grain drills, corn drills, cotton seeders, forage spreaders, etc. The objects planted by the planter are the seed blocks of crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions, and the seed segments of sugarcane. Due to the large differences in the properties and planting requirements of different crop blocks and sections, most planters are special planters, such as potato planters and sugarcane planters.
• Seedling machinery:
  The planting objects of the seedling planting machine are the seedlings of crops such as rice, cotton, tobacco, vegetables, fruit trees, and flowers, and the seedlings with nutrient bowl or soil. Planters are divided into semi-mechanized, mechanized, and automated.
  • The semi-mechanized seedling planting machine is performed by the machine to complete the processes such as ditching, covering, and pressing. While the seedling fetching and planting are completed by the planter sitting on the machine.
  • The planting action of the mechanized seedling planting machine is completed by the machine, but the seedlings are still taken by the planting hand and put into the planting mechanism.
  • The automatic seedling planting machine only manually installs the seedlings in trays on the seedling tray frame of the machine, and the machine automatically completes all the planting procedures while traveling.
• Fertilizer machinery:
  Fertilizer machines are used to apply various chemical fertilizers, manure, manure, and compost in the field, mainly for applying base fertilizer before arable land, while seed fertilizer and top-dressing fertilizer are generally applied by fertilization devices attached to seeders and cultivators respectively. Commonly used fertilization machines include fertilizer spreaders, fertilizer spreader trailers, liquid fertilizer sprayers, chemical fertilizer spreaders, and ammonia strip applicators.
• Drainage and irrigation machinery:
  Farmland irrigation and drainage machinery are used for irrigation and drainage operations in farmland, orchards, and pastures, including water pumps, turbine pumps, sprinkler irrigation equipment, and drip irrigation equipment.
  • Water pump: Driven by electric motors, internal combustion engines, or wind turbines, there are many types of centrifugal pumps, axial flow pumps, mixed flow pumps, piston pumps, diaphragm pumps, deep well pumps, and submersible electric pumps. Multistage centrifugal pumps are often used for high-lift water-lifting irrigation in hills and mountains. Large-scale axial flow pumps with large flow and small lifts are often used for large-scale drainage and irrigation in plain areas. Large-scale mixed-flow pumps should be used for large-scale irrigation with large lifts. Long shaft deep well pumps and deep well submersible electric pumps are used for deep well water pumping. Piston pumps and diaphragm pumps have smaller flow rates and are generally still used to provide water for livestock and poultry in agriculture.
  • Sprinkler equipment: The sprinkler irrigation equipment uses a water pump to pressurize the water through pipes and sprinklers to spray into the air, disperse into uniform fine water droplets, and sink to the ground and crops in the form of rain. Compared with irrigation methods through ditches and surface pipes, the use of sprinkler irrigation equipment can provide uniform irrigation, less water loss, and easy automation of irrigation management. This device is especially suitable for gently sloping, undulating, and water-scarce areas. There are many types of sprinkler irrigation equipment, among which the circular sprinkler or the central pivot type sprinkler irrigation equipment has a higher degree of automation. Its branch pipes are mounted on a row of brackets with traveling wheels, and each bracket is driven by an electric motor or other power. Make a circular motion around the central support shaft at one end of the branch pipe, and the pressure water is sprayed from the center along the branch pipe through each nozzle. The length of the branch pipe is more than 500 meters, and the irrigation area can be controlled by more than 1500 mu. The time for the branch pipe to rotate a week range from several hours to several days, and it can be automatically controlled according to the water demand in the field. The movement of the branch pipe is similar to the hour hand of a clock, so it is also called an hour needle sprinkler. To solve the problem of irrigation in the blank areas at the four corners of the square plot, a corner sprinkler is installed on some circular sprinklers, and the sprinkler is automatically turned on when it reaches the corner.
  • Drip irrigation equipment: This equipment can make low-pressure water pass through underground or ground pipes, and drip continuously and in small amounts from the drippers installed on the pipes to the water-requiring parts of crops. The water consumption is smaller than that of sprinkler irrigation equipment. It is often used in orchards, nurseries, and greenhouses irrigation.
• Protection machinery:
  Plant protection machinery is used to protect crops and agricultural products from diseases, insects, birds, animals, and weeds. It usually refers to various pesticide spraying machinery that uses chemical methods to control plant diseases and insect pests and includes chemical or physical methods. Machinery and equipment used for weeding and physical control of pests and diseases, and driving birds and beasts. Plant protection machinery mainly includes spray, dusting, and smoke spraying equipment.
  • Spray equipment: It is used to spray the aqueous solution of liquid or powder agent to the control target in the form of mist droplets, mainly divided into the sprayer, mist mister, and ultra-low volume sprayer. Commonly used are manual sprayers, stretcher-type motorized sprayers, knapsack-type motorized mist misters, boom-type misters matched with tractors, air-supplied misters for orchards, and hand-held motor ultra-low volume misters.
  • Dusting equipment: The powdered agent is blown to the control target through the nozzle and the powder spraying head by the fan airflow. The commonly used manual knapsack and chest-mounted dusters, stretcher-type power dusters, and tractor-mounted dusters are used.
  • Smoke machine: Using the high-temperature airflow generated by the combustion of liquid fuel or the exhaust gas from the internal combustion engine, the oil and pesticides are volatilized and thermally cracked into particles with a diameter of fewer than 50 microns. Pest control in warehouses, warehouses, and greenhouses.
• Harvest machinery:
  Crop harvesting machinery is agricultural machinery that harvests the whole plant or fruit, seeds, stems, leaves, roots, and other parts of mature crops. Mainly include grain harvesting machinery, corn harvesting machinery, cotton harvesting machinery, potato harvesting machinery, sugar beet harvesting machinery, peanut harvesting machinery, sugarcane harvesting machinery, vegetable harvesting machinery, fruit harvesting machinery, tea picking machinery, forage harvesting machinery, and green fodder harvesting machinery. They are harvested by cutting, digging, picking, uprooting, and shaking off, respectively. Some harvesting machines also perform processes such as threshing, fruit picking, topping, cutting tips, peeling husks, separating straws, and removing impurities. Various combine harvesters complete all or most of the harvesting process of a certain crop at one time. Such as grain combine harvesters, corn combines harvesters, potato combines harvesters, sugar beet combines harvesters, peanut combine harvesters, sugarcane combine harvesters, etc.

Materials for Agricultural Machinery:

Most agricultural machinery operates in the open air, dusty, humid, and dirty environment, or water, with contact with soil, fertilizers, pesticides, manure, rotten plants, water, etc., and is corroded by these materials and environments. During the operation, some parts are seriously worn by friction with materials such as soil, crop rhizomes, and livestock fur, and some parts are subjected to large dynamic loads and impacts. Therefore, in the manufacture of agricultural machinery, metal, and non-metallic materials with corrosion resistance, wear resistance, friction reduction, impact resistance, and fatigue resistance are often used at low cost, and the raw materials are based on the country's resources. Improve and enhance the properties of these materials.

• Steel pipes and cold-formed steels: Frames of seeders and cultivators with small loads, commonly used square or rectangular section mild steel welded steel pipes, chisel ploughs, disc ploughs, and discs The frame of the rake is made of low-alloy manganese steel. The use of cold-formed channel steel or curled channel steel made of thin steel plates to manufacture frames such as seeders and cultivators can significantly reduce the weight compared with hot-rolled steel frames. High-precision cold-drawn thin-walled seamless steel pipes are suitable for the manufacture of hydraulic cylinders for agricultural machinery hydraulic systems.
• Alloy steel and low-alloy steel: Ploughshares, disc harrows, and cultivator shovels, as well as harvesters, shearers, etc. The blade has good wear resistance. Deep well pump shafts and sprayer parts made of low alloy steel containing chromium, nickel, copper, titanium, and rare earth elements have high corrosion resistance. The bimetallic composite steel with wear-resistant steel or corrosion-resistant steel as the surface material or cladding layer is an important material for the manufacture of agricultural machinery.
• Carbide: Welding a layer of cemented carbide on the surface of parts such as plowshares, cultivator shovels, and harvester blades can multiply the service life of these parts.
• Special cast iron: Plow side plate made of spheroidal graphite manganese cast iron, feed pelletizer die made of bainite and boron ductile iron through isothermal quenching, feed mill hammer made of strong and tough white cast iron, Ploughshares and rotary tiller machetes made of pearlitic malleable iron, as well as water pump impellers made of boron cast iron, all have high wear resistance under the condition of ensuring the necessary strength and toughness.
• Powder metallurgy materials: Powder metallurgy materials are used to manufacture gears of agricultural machinery and other complex-shaped parts, which can replace part of steel or cast-iron castings. Oil-impregnated bearings made of powder metallurgy porous materials have better anti-friction effects and self-lubricating properties.
• Engineering plastics: Engineering plastics have the characteristics of light weight, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and friction reduction, and are widely used in the manufacture of parts for plant protection machinery, livestock raising equipment, farmland irrigation, and drainage machinery, and other agricultural machineries, such as medicine boxes and liquid medicine pumps. Spraying and powder spraying nozzles, irrigation, and drainage pipes, sprinkler irrigation nozzles, bearings of water wheel pumps and submersible electric pumps, milk storage tanks and conveying pipes, feed and water supply pipes, livestock drinkers, and seeding grooves for seeders, etc. Commonly used plastics are polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester or epoxy glass fiber reinforced plastics, polyvinyl chloride, nylon, polyoxymethylene, phenolic plastics, and polystyrene. In addition, making plastic moldboards with low-pressure polyethylene or covering the working surfaces of moldboards with PTFE plastics can reduce frictional resistance.
• Rubber: It has the characteristics of wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and good elasticity. In agricultural machinery, rubber is not only used for various transmission belts but also used to make rubber tracks for harvesting machinery, fertilization star wheels of fertilization devices, and seedlings of seedlings. Claws, feeding rollers of sugarcane planters, rubber rollers of huskers, irrigation hoses and various seals, etc.