International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

Described in the scientific literature the results of experimental studies and performance test of the technological process of sugar beet harvesting conducted in recent years have shown that modern sugar-beet harvesters manufactured in Europe and America work with significant losses of sugar-bearing plant materials. These losses are due to generally poor topping quality of sugar beet on a root. Therefore, nowadays the search of technical solutions enabling to avoid these losses is of great to importance as it increases the yield of sugar-bearing plant materials per hectare of crops. The purpose of research is to reduce the losses of sugar-bearing plant materials in the course of separation process of sugar beet tops from heads of root crops on a root. While conducting research the methods of field experimental research on the measurement of physical parameters of the technological process were used, as well as methods of statistical processing of the measurement results with the use of computer. New experimental equipment was designed for the field experimental studies being equipped with modern electronic equipment with data transfer to a PC. As a result of the experimental investigation of the distribution heads heights above the ground of sugar beet roots confirmation has been received hypothesis that it does not deny the law of the normal distribution. The results of the multiple measurements enabled set limits of changes in their statistical characteristics, which are as follows: average statistical deviation σ = 20 … 30 mm, the expectation m = 40 … 60 mm. A new design of the laboratory equipment and results of the experimental studies, conducted on it, have given every reason to design and develop a new system of automatic adjustment of the height of cut tops, which can be used in designs of modern sugar-beet harvesting machines.

On the basis of an integrated wheel-type tractor (traction class 3.0), there was created the new combined machine and tractor unit carried out a continuous flat cutting of the sugar beet tops with a front mounted sugar beet tops cutting machine. To carry out this field experimental studies, a program and methodology was developed based on measurements of the remains of the tops on the heads of root crops after passing through the aggregate at a given rate of translational motion, the height of the installation of its rotary cutting mechanism above the level of the soil surface and the frequency of its rotation. The results of the study were statistically processed on a personal computer using regression and correlation analysis methods. Based on the developed methodology of the full-factor experiment, empirical mathematical models were constructed in the form of regression equations for the process of cutting the tops of sugar beet. According to the results of these calculations, it was found that the speed of the forward movement of the sugar beet tops cutting aggregate exerts the greatest influence on the mass of the remains of the tops on the spherical surfaces of the root heads, after a continuous main cut. In a lesser extent, this process is influenced by the rotational speed of the rotor of the sugar beet tops cutting machine and the height of the rotor installation above the soil surface level by means of two pneumatic copying wheels. According to the results of experimental studies, it has been established that the rational design and technological parameters of the process for harvesting sugar beet tops by a front mounted sugar beet tops harvesting  machine with a rotary cutting apparatus is its rotation frequency equal to 960 rpm, the speed of the aggregate should not exceed 2.0 m.s-1, and the height of the rotor installation should be as low as possible, not less than 0.02 m.

In the paper, the current situation in the production of crop growing by-products in Ukraine is examined. The potential output of crop growing by-products in various regions of Ukraine, part of which could be allocated for energy production, is determined. The fuel properties of the main types of biomass are presented. The state-of-the-art approaches to the use of straw and plant residues in agriculture are analysed. The possible ways of utilising straw and plant residues in crop growing for maintaining and regenerating the fertility of soils, in livestock husbandry as bedding and a supplement to coarse fodders and in heat power industry as an energy source for the production of thermal power are established. The state-of-the-art technologies and machinery for the rational use of straw and plant residues are described. The need for additional research into what plant residues and what quantities of them can be reasonably used for the fertilisation of soils, taking into account the saturation of the crop rotation systems with cereal crops, the limitation of the phytopathogenic load on grain varieties, the development of weeds, the management of the soil’s nitrogen status under different soil and climate conditions.

There are considered contemporary trends in the improvement of the technological process for the preparation of sugar beet roots for digging out and directions of the development of the designs of the working tools for the removal of the tops. Analysis of contemporary machines has been carried out according to the indicators of their quality, energy consumption and efficiency of the technological process. Tasks have been determined for creating new working tools. It is noted that at the current stage of development of the beet top removing machines the efficiency and quality problems of the top separation process are solved by increasing the number of operations, which is an energy-consuming, material-intensive and costly way to improve the technological process and the working tools. And, as a consequence, it is necessary to look for technical solutions, technologically allowing operations required only for the preparation of the root crops to be harvested. Therefore, further research should be conducted in the direction of creating a working tool that combines good tracing of the heads by cleaners with low-energy intensity of the cutting tools.

There are in the article systematically finding out scientific-methodological and organizational-economical foundations of the development of biofuel market, forming of energy crops market, which used as plant origin bioraw material and economical estimation of their usage in the area of agro-industrial complex. World trends of development of biofuel from plant origin bioraw material were generalized, theoretical- methodological bases of forming biofuel market and its social-economic meaning in development of agro-industrial complex and economy integrally, other problems of organization of producing of bioenergy crops and competitiveness of biofuel market were examined. Prospects of development of biofuel were economically substantiated. The main problems, which restricting biofuel market are the absence of the accurate strategy of development.

Maintaining of the combine harvesters in an efficient condition throughout the harvest season is an important task of technical service. The most important elements in the work of combine harvesters are their steering mechanisms, the performance of which must have a high degree of availability, especially of their hydraulic drives. The purpose of this study is to increase the operational reliability of the steering drives of the combine harvesters, based on the development of an improved method for diagnosing of their hydraulic drives. During the research, the methods of theoretical and experimental research were used, based on the theory of machine operation, hydraulics, as well as modern methods of experimental studies of hydraulic equipment. The data of the experimental studies were processed by statistical methods using a PC. Theoretically and experimentally, an improved method for diagnosing of the hydraulic drives has been developed with the aim to increase the technical readiness of combine harvesters and reduce the costs of their maintenance and repair. A new methodical approach and results of studies on the creation of a diagnostic system for the hydraulic drive of the combine harvester’s power steering have been developed.

Prospective energy technology devises for controlled traffic farming is the wide span tractor (vehicles). Their driving can be built behind the kinematic or force principle of the turn. At the kinematic turn, the schemes are applied by turning the steered wheels (front, rear or both front and rear) relative to the car’s frame. The widest distribution in wide span tractor (vehicles) was obtained by turning schemes with all steerable wheels. The theoretical foundations of the dynamics of the parallel-span parallel motion tractor (vehicles) in the horizontal plane are presented in the article under the kinematic method of its control (by turning the wheels). Theoretical research is based on the basic principles of theoretical mechanics, tractor theory, statistical dynamics and the theory of automatic control of linear dynamical systems when they reproduce statistically random control and disturbing input effects. The amplitude and phase frequency characteristics are based on the analysis of the evaluation of the degree of influence of the circuit and parameters of the investigated wide span tractor (vehicles) on its controllability and stability of motion. The physical object of the theortical studies was the prototype of the wide span tractor (vehicles) of the new design. Mathematical models of the wide span tractor (vehicles) movement are represented in the differential and operator form of recording. On the basis of mathematical models, the calculated amplitude and phase-frequency characteristics of the dynamic control system development are plotted, represented by the average rotation angle of the front wheels of the wide span tractor (vehicles). The constructed mathematical models, amplitude and phase-frequency characteristics allow estimating the effect of the control parameter of the wide span tractor (vehicles), as well as its design and other parameters on the controllability and stability of motion.

Theoretical investigations have been conducted of the technological process of a sugar beet haulm topping machine with a rotary cutter mechanism, as a result of which there is developed a refined mathematical model of interaction of the cutting blade with a bundle of leaves, the blade being pivotally fixed on the horizontal drive shaft of the arcuate cutting blade. Basic analytical dependencies have been obtained, application of which in designing and constructing of a haulm topping machine will ensure guaranteed quality removal of the bundles of leaves without extracting the sugar beet roots from the soil. The numerical calculations of the obtained analytical expressions performed on the PC, using a prearranged program, made it possible to determine the design parameters of the rotary haulm topping apparatus.

The scientific problem of this study is the justification of the expediency of combining the technological operations of sowing cereals and applying the main and starting doses of mineral fertilizers when using a combined machine and tractor unit (aggregate). During the research there were used methods of conducting field experiments using standard equipment. During the planned experiments there were used correlation methods and methods of numerical calculations on a PC. The comparative studies of the quality of barley sowing with basic and modernized fertilizer-sowing units showed the following values of qualitative indicators. So, the coefficient of seed depth variation of the base unit was – 8.2%, and the combined (modernized) unit – 4.7%; The uniformity of seed distribution along the length of the line for the basic unit is – 63.8%, for the modernized unit – 84.9%; Field germination of seeds when sowing the basic unit is 80.4%, modernized – 87.4%. Thus, when using the combined fertilizer-seeding unit, the uniformity of seed distribution along the length of the string will be substantially increased. At the same time, the field germination of seeds will increase, and the coefficient of variation in the depth of seed placement in the furrow will decrease. Based on the results of field experimental studies, an increase in the yield of spring wheat and barley was found in the application of a combined fertilizer-seed aggregate with the simultaneous introduction of a basic fertilizer-seeded fertilizer into the soil and sowing of cereals with the application of a starting dose of mineral fertilizer in comparison with the known schemes of such operations. The obtained results confirm the expediency of combining these technological operations with one pass of the combined machine-tractor unit (aggregate).

Modern technologies of harvesting sugar beet tops provide solid preliminary cutting and collecting its harvest at the increased altitude and subsequent additional root crops heads cleaning from tops residues on a root. This last operation also defines quality of root crops of beet before their digging up. Objective of this research is improvement quality of root crops heads cleaning from tops remains, by development of interaction theory of flexible cleaning blade with a spherical surface of root crop head. In the theoretical study were used methods of modeling, higher mathematics and theoretical mechanics, as well as programming and carrying out numerical calculations on the PC. As a result of the conducted theoretical research the interaction theory of flexible cleaning blade with a root crop head surface in the course of its cleaning from tops remains is developed. On the basis of the received differential equations of blade movement which is pivotally mounted on the drive shaft with a horizontal axis of rotation, new mathematical dependences which justify basic parameters of this technology process are given.

Since the tractor is the main energy source in agriculture, the state with highly developed agrarian production, tractor and agricultural machine building should have a fairly clear and consistent policy in the field of organizing the production and supply to agricultural producers of a wide range of tractors for various purposes. Such a policy is based on the type of mobile energy resources, i.e. tractors, based on a deep analysis and study of the volume of agricultural production, the needs for mechanized technologies, the theory of the operation of agricultural machines, the overall assessment of the development of high-tech agriculture. The purpose of this study is to develop theoretical bases for calculating the type of agricultural tractors based on an optimization of technical and economic analysis, taking into account the need for a qualitative and timely implementation of the entire closed set of works in agricultural production. During the research methods of machine use in agriculture, higher mathematics, economics, compilation of programs and numerical calculations on PC were used. The results of the study showed that the classification of tractors should be carried out not according to traction power (as is done in most countries of the world), but by the nominal traction force developed by them. It has been established that this gives a more accurate representation of the operational properties of an energy tool, which in turn allows for the very accurate and correct selection of complexes of appropriate agricultural machinery and implements for its effective operation. The presented theoretical approaches allow to determine with a high degree of accuracy the type of agricultural tractors for any country.

One of the most acute problems in the effective use of small-sized agricultural machinery, in particular, motor blocks, is the stabilization of their rectilinear motion on the slopes work. The purpose of this study is to increase the stabilizing moment of the motor block, by theoretically justifying its movement across the slope with a stabilizing device. The research uses modeling methods, theoretical mechanics and higher mathematics. As a result of the theoretical study, the conditions for the balance of the running wheels of the aggregate in the structure of the motor block and the agricultural implement when moving along the slope surface, as well as the traction of the wheels with the soil, are determined, taking into account the lateral force leading this unit down the slope. At the same time, as a stabilizing device, a micro-tiller is used, which makes it possible to pre-make a stabilizing groove for the wheels of the motor block. Further, using the developed power circuit, analytical expressions are compiled that allow us to numerically determine the structural and power parameters of a given aggregate, allowing it to stabilize its steady motion when working on a slope.