2004 Volume 66 Issue 2 Pages 123-129
The objective of this research was to reduce the power requirement and torque of a metering device for a variable rate granular fertilizer applicator under development. To that end, two prototypes for the metering device roller feeder were made and tested: a flexible rubber type and an edge-cell type. On the basis of metering two types of chemical fertilizer, the power requirement and torque of both types of metering devices were measured and compared. Results showed that both metering devices could precisely meter the applied amount of fertilizer by controlling roller rotational speed. The edge-cell roller feeder offers the advantage because it can control to meter the amount of fertilizer with a lower power requirement than that of the rubber roller feeder.
