Redesign and analysis of Janke Bros. F500P parallelogram planting unit

Abstract

Janke Bros Engineering (Australia) is a progressive manufacturing company specialising in minimum tillage machinery for the agricultural market. They specialise in the customisation of machines to suit the customers farming practices, this enables the grower to purchase a machine that will do several separate operations with minimal fuss. Currently they manufacture two main lines of direct drill planters, a fixed tyne unit and a parallelogram unit. The parallelogram unit gains the majority of the attention from customers. The features that appeal to the customers are the ability for the parallelogram to follow the contours of the ground and the leading coulter disc that is able to cut the trash ahead of the tyne. In the current market place there is a trend towards minimum tillage farming, which incorporates the use of double and single disc openers. However disc openers are not able to work in dry conditions, they are not able to reach through the dry crust to the moisture below where a direct drill tyne is able to. To obtain the best of both worlds Janke intend to redesign the current F500P parallelogram unit to have interchangeability. This would enable the customer to remove the leading coulter and tyne, replacing it with either a single or double disc opener, depending on the planting conditions. The design process involved: - Design the double/Single disc unit, using as many of Jankes current range of products as possible, and the new attachment system. - The newly designed disc opener and attachment is to be tested on a finite element analysis (FEA) package. Allowing a better visualisation of the attachment method and eliminate the need to redesign the attachment system after testing. - A prototype can be constructed and tested in the field, enabling Janke to produce the new design for the next winter crop planting (April-May 2005).