RIDGE HEIGHT AND THE LENGTH OF A SOIL CUT ARC FORMED BY A ROTARY TILLER WITH THE MALTESE MECHANISM IN THE DRIVE

The research object is a rotary tiller with a horizontal axis of rotation, with the Maltese mechanism installed
in the drive and equipped with a cross with radial grooves. A rotary tiller with the Maltese mechanism in the drive can be used when tilling extremely wet loamy soils. Under the given depth of cutting and preset knive position, the rotor does not rotate at the moment of blades penetrating the soil and going out of it. The aim of the study is to obtain the estimates of the ridge height and the length of a soil cut arc formed by a rotary tiller knife in the plane of its rotation. The paper considers the operation of a rotary tiller equipped with the Maltese mechanism and without it. The author has obtained equations of the trajectories for two tiller knives in the plane of their rotation. The paper presents a detailed algorithm for calculating the ridge height and the length of a soil cut arc implemented in a computer model of the rotary soil tillage. It has been shown that the use of the Maltese mechanism in the rotary tiller drive could reduce the ridge height by 10…25% and ensure smoother cutting. The length of a soil cut arc formed by a rotary tiller knife has been increased by approximately 1…10%.