The Design and Laboratory Testing of a Vibratory Digger Blade

The evolution of an experimental prototype vibrating digger blade for harvesting root crops is described. The prototype had two independent oscillatory inputs, one to vibrate the whole blade horizontally and another to vibrate the rear edge vertically. It was to be used in later field experiments to determine the effect of changing directions of vibration on the dependent variables of draft, torque, and soil break-up. Torque measurements were made in the laboratory for eccentricities of 0.0, 9.53, and 12.70 mm and frequencies of 6.96, 9.28, 10.44, 13.92, 15.66, and 20.89 Hz, the range of these variables which would subsequently be used in field tests. The outputs of two computer simulation programs, one written by Rodriguez and a commercial software mechanisms analysis program, compared favorably with the measured laboratory results. ¹