Studies on the Wear Performance of Different Materials of Rotary Blades

Wear of soil engaging components occurs because the materials used are normally softer than the natural abrasives in the soil. Most of blades of Rotavator are manufactured locally which are hardly at par with the standards in terms of material, shape and size which affects operational life of rotary tool. So, there was a need to study wear characteristics of rotary blades so as to provide the suitable blades in the rotary tools. Study was conducted in rotary soil bin in loamy soil and sandy loam soil. L-Shape blade of four different makes was mounted on the two flanges and their speed varied from 140–150 rpm. Two rollers along their stand were mounted on soil bin for compressing the soil upto 4.5 – 5.0 kg/cm² compaction. After running the blades for 50 h in the soil bin, blades were weighted and loss in weight and dimensional wear loss was noted down. Similar procedure was followed for 100 h and 150 hr time intervals. It was observed that the weight loss of rotary blades was proportional to time. In loamy soil maximum average weight loss was 6.76% in blade T2 low alloy steel (LAS) having 0.280% carbon content and minimum average weight loss was 0.86% that occurred in blade T3 high carbon spring steel (HCSS) having carbon content 0.64% after 150 hours of working period. In sandy loam soil maximum average weight loss was 10.02% that occurred in blade T4 low carbon steel (LCS) having carbon content of 0.250% and minimum average weight loss was 4.09% that occurred in blade T3 high carbon spring steel (HCSS) after 150h of working period. The width of worn out blades decreased with operational hours. In loam soil maximum average loss in width was 13.20% in blade type T2 low alloy steel (LAS) and minimum average width loss was 3.18% in blade type T3 high carbon spring steel (HCSS) after 150h of working period. In sandy loam soil maximum average width loss was 14.68% in blade type T4 low carbon steel (LCS) and minimum average width loss was 8.27% in blade type T3 high carbon spring steel (HCSS) after 150h of working period.