Study of wear characteristics of the cutting edge of duckfoot sweeps of cultivators made of steels 65G and 20 during tests in a soil channel

Abstract

In recent years in crop production, despite the widespread introduction of progressive technologies of minimum and "zero" tillage (No-Till), traditional agro-technologies still remain relevant, especially for restoration of soil structure and fertility. In tillage equipment used in no-tillage technologies, one of the main types of working tools is a duckfoot sweep. Tillage implements with duckfoot sweeps may be used for: pre-sowing tillage, fallow tillage, autumn plowing, field leveling, weed control, soil rolling, sowing, fertilizing, etc., and they may be aggregated by coupling, as a part of a machine-tractor unit forming universal sowing tillage complexes - sowing combines. However, duckfoot sweeps as well as other types of tillage tools wear out quickly, especially along the cutting edge, which reduces the quality of agro-technological operations. This study deals with the regularities of wear of cutting edge of duckfoot sweeps of KS-7.4 “Sibiryak” cultivator made of steel 65G and 20 and hardened in production by different methods at their tests in a soil channel. The value of blunting of the cutting edge r_t of the part and its linear wear I_l, in 10 fixed control points was determined which showed that both types of duckfoot sweeps, in points Nos. 1...4(6), near their toe, already reached or exceeded their limit state by 75.5...130%, at the run up to 7.5…7.9 ha which was far from the standardized value. It is shown that for effective replacement of steel 65G by budget construction material steel 20, it will require additional hardening of the toe in these points, for example, by induction build-up welding with hard alloys.