Development of Air Assisted Sprayer for Greenhouse Floriculture Crops

Abstract

Floriculture is one of the major sectors in Indian agriculture. Main threats to floriculture production are insects, pests and diseases. Therefore, a motor operated air assisted sprayer was developed for greenhouse floricultural crops. A tapered air sleeve was designed and made with fiber reinforced PVC material in order to get uniform air velocity at each outlet. The boom was developed to support air sleeve and nozzles. The centrifugal blower of capacity 0.40 m3•s-1 was used on the system to produce air stream in the sleeves. A horizontal triplex power pump of 16 l•min-1 capacity was used to create necessary pressure in the nozzles. Blower and pump were operated by 3.73 kW electric motor. The whole assembly of the sprayer was mounted on the trolley. The performance of developed sprayer was evaluated in the laboratory to study the effect of different air velocity (9, 12, 16 and 20 m•s-1) and pump discharge (2.5, 4.5, 7 and 9 l•min-1) levels on droplet size, droplet density and uniformity coefficient at six different positions of artificial plant canopy. The optimum results of droplet size (100-150 µm), droplet density (25-35 droplets per cm2) and uniformity coefficient (near unity) at all plant positions were observed for air velocity of 20 m•s-1 and pump discharge of 2.5 l•min-1.

Cvećarstvo je jedna od glavnih oblasti indijske poljoprivrede. Ovu proizvodnju najviše ugrožavaju insekti, štetočine i bolesti. Zato je vazdušni rasprskivač na motorni pogon razvijen za zaštitu cvećarskih kultura u zaštićenom prostoru. Konusni usmerivač vazduha je konstruisan i napravljen od ojačanog PVC materijala kako bi dao ujednačenu brzinu strujanja vazduha u svakom izlaznom otvoru. Nosač je razvijen kao oslonac za usmerivač vazduha i mlaznice. U sistem je ugrađen centrifugalni duvač kapaciteta 0.40 m3•s-1 koji stvara vazdušnu struju u usmerivačima. Horizontalna trostruka pogonska pumpa kapaciteta 16 l•min-1 je upotrebljena za obezbeđenje potrebnog pritiska u mlaznicama. Duvač i pumpa dobijaju pogon od elektromotora snage 3.73 kW. Ceo sklop rasprskivača postavljen je na kolica. Kod razvijenog rasprskivača u laboratoriji su ispitivani uticaji različitih brzina vazduha (9, 12, 16 i 20 m•s-1) i kapaciteta pumpe (2.5, 4.5, 7 i 9 l•min-1) na veličinu kapljica, gustinu kapljica i koeficijent ujednačenosti u šest različitih položaja veštačkog biljnog krova. Optimalni rezultati veličine kapljica (100-150 µm), gustine kapljica (25-35 kapljica po cm2) i koeficijenta ujednačenosti kod svih položaja biljke su dobijeni za brzinu vazduha od 20 m•s-1 i kapacitet pumpe od 2.5 l•min-1.