Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.

Sci (2018) 7(4): 1424-1431

International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences

ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 04 (2018)
Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com

Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.704.161

Design and Development of Stone Collector

M.R. Rudani*, R.G. Jakasania and R.A. Gupta

Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Junagadh Agricultural University,

Junagadh-362001, India

*Corresponding author

ABSTRACT

In a many Farm fields, stones are present in the soil. Stones are a major problem in a farm
Keywords to resist the growth of plants. It is also damage the tillage tools and harvesting machinery.
The damage of harvesting machinery can be very expensive and takes substantial periods
Stones, Design,
of time to repair. Most of Indian farmers collect stones manually. In a process of removing
Digging tool,
Stones picker stone, operation involves digging up the stones and separating it from the soil. But manual
collection of stones fail to dig out all the stones from the field and many stones still remain
Article Info in the ground after collecting stones from the field. Hence, it was planned to fabricate a
stone collecting machine and to study its performance. Major components of the developed
Accepted:
machine are digging blade, conveying unit, stone collecting trolley and power transmission
12 March 2018
Available Online: system. A frame holds the different components of machine. Digging blade was hold with
10 April 2018 help of four nut-bolts which are mounted on frame. PTO operated conveyor was attached
at the upper edge of digging blade which is operated at the speed of 33.6-42.0 m/min.

Introduction 2000). Hence it becomes essential to remove

these stones from the field, improves the
India can be called a land of paradoxes structure and texture of the soil, increase the
because of the large variety of soils. A girdle water holding capacity of the soil, and make
of high mountains, snow fields, glaciers and the soil easy for nursery preparation and other
thick forests in the north, seas washing lengthy operation. These problems prevent the fiscal
coasts in the Peninsula, a variety of geological growth of farmer and ultimately hamper the
formations, diversified climate, topography development of their farmland and family.
and relief have given rise to varied Efficient, effective, cheap and productive
physiographic features (Bhattacharyya et al., techniques are needed to strengthen the
2013). farmers (Syed et al., 2016).

Farm fields in many areas have stones mixed The process of removing stone involves
with the soil. Stones are found in all shapes digging up the stones and separating it from
and sizes. In dry region the soil contains a the soil. But manual collection of stones fail to
number of small stones due to which farmers dig out all the stones from the field and many
face difficulties during cultivation (Smith, stones still remain in the ground after

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collecting stones from the field. The working Design considerations

capacity of a human labor varies in the course
of a day. Generally, it is higher in the morning The components of stone collector were
and declines in the middle of the day. Again in designed and fabricated based on the
the afternoon it increases for a short period parameters like functional requirements,
and then falls rapidly (Keigley, 2006). engineering and general considerations. The
assumptions made in the design of stone
Stone collecting as of today in the country is collector are as follow:
labour intensive and tedious. The manual
picking is mostly performed in sitting or Speed of Power Take Off shaft was taken as
bending posture, which rapidly increases 540±10 min-1.
fatigue. Stone pickers are used in landscapes
where stones need to be removed from the soil Average speed of operation of tractor in the
and ground surface to prevent damage to other field was kept as 2 km·h-1.
farm machinery.
Maximum soil resistance was considered as
Huge amount of labour is engaged and its 0.75 kg·cm-2.
availability is the major problem faced by the
farmers. In general, women’s engaged in the Coefficient of friction in un-ploughed soil was
removal of stones in dry farmlands undergo taken 0.85.
serious physical stress while doing such field
operation. Removing stones from the soil also The machine should dig stones from the field
ensures a more consistent yield. Thus, there is in 115 cm width and 10 cm depth.
a need for a smaller and efficient machine to
pick up the stones with ease and also which Assessment of draft and power requirement
would be more accessible and also
considerably cheaper. The draft requirement of the tractor operated
stone collector would be estimated using
Materials and Methods factors related to implement and the type of
soil.
A stone collecting machine was developed to
collect the stones from agricultural fields. The Cross section area of blade = length of blade ×
stone collecting machine consists of a frame depth of cut = 115 × 10 = 1150 cm2
with digging blade, conveying system,
collection trolley and power transmission Maximum draft =cross section area of blade ×
system to provide power to conveying system soil resistance = 1150 × 0.75 = 862.5 kg
and three-point linkage unit. The working
principle of stone collecting machine which is Speed of travel = 2.5 km/h = 2500 m/h =0.69
having a blade will dig out stones and these m/s
stones along with the soil will be separated by
a conveyor provided in the machine. When a The power required for the designed draft was
mixture of stones and soil is lifted on by estimated using following formula (Kepner et
conveyor, stones will get separated and soil al., 2005).
will pass through the conveyor. Due to motion
of conveyor belt, the stones will move towards
collecting trolley.

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Where: Volume of soil mass = Area of coverage of the

blade × forward speed of travel =
P = Power required (kW),
D = Maximum draft (N), = 0.076
S = Forward speed. (m/s).
Weight of soil to be handled = Volume of soil
mass × Bulk density of soil = 0.076
× 1230 = 93.48

Weight of stones to be handled = Volume of

soil mass × Bulk density of stones =
0.076 × 865 = 65.74

Total material to be handled Qout = Weight of

soil + Weight of stones = 93.48 + 65.74 =
Hence, this implement can easily be hitched
and operated by most of the Indian makes 159.22
tractors of 35 HP capacity.
Now equating the volume of material flow
Design of functional components of stone with volume of the conveyor by assuming that
collector this material will be spread uniformly on the
conveyor, the following was obtained:
The design of the functional components and
different mechanisms were carried out. The Qout = Bulk density of soil × length of blade ×
machine consists of frame, blade, separating thickness of material (m) × speed of conveyor
unit and power transmission system. 159.22 = 1230 × L × 0.1 × 1.5
L = 0.86 m= 86 cm
The design of following components was
taken up: Therefore, the conveyor of 86 cm length was
fabricated using M.S. rod of 10 mm diameter.
Conveying unit The conveyor was supported by flat metal
Bevel gear mechanism wheel having 70 mm diameter at front, centre
Belt pulley mechanism and rear side. All the wheels are supported by
the shaft of 40 mm diameter and the shaft was
Design of conveying unit fitted in pulley.

The conveyor was provided on the upper edge The top end of conveyor is rigidly fixed with
of the blade. The soil-stone separating unit main frame. To tighten the conveyor elevator
consists of conveyor (988 mm x 860 mm). a nut and bolts was provided, which moved in
The conveyor was made of M.S. bars and a slot, to stretch the elevator by moving the
angles. driving shaft away.

For the determination of volume of material At the middle of the separating unit two flat
flow on the conveyor, the volume of the metal wheel were provided with belt at front
material flow on the conveyor was determined and rear side. The design of the separating unit
as follows (Khurmi and Gupta, 2011): was based on its functional requirements.

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Bevel gear mechanism Fabrication of stone collector

The power was transmitted to shaft through Frame

bevel gear mechanism.
The frame is meant for holding different
The size selection of bevel gear was carried components of stone collecting machine. It is
out using standard formula (Khurmi and subjected to bending, tension, and vibrations.
Gupta, 2011). The frame was fabricated using L-section
angle iron for mounting digging blade,
separating unit and power transmission unit.
The components were fastened on the main
frame using nuts and bolts. The frame was
Where, provided with three hitch points to mount the
machine on tractor. The three point hitch was
N1 = No. of revolution of driving wheel (540) fabricated using 75 mm × 5 mm flat. The rear
end of the frame was supported on two wheels
N2 = No. of revolution of driven wheel for proper stability and easy transportation of
the machine (Fig. 1).
T1 = No. of teeth on driving gear (10)
Digging blade
T2 = No. of teeth on driven gear (18)
The function of the blade of machine is to lift
Substituting the values as above the number of or dig up the layer of soil stones, partially or
revolution of driven wheel comes out as. completely break up the soil layer and deliver
the resulting material to the subsequent
working components. The length of the blade
was decided 1.15 m on the basis of dimension
of tread width of the tractor of 35-45 hp range.
To get required number of rpm standard bevel The width of blade was decided 25 cm such
gears of 10 and 18 teeth were used. that to cover 10 cm depth of cut for digging.
The blade was fabricated using 7 mm
Belt pulley mechanism thickness spring steel. The blade was
supported with nuts and bolts at the both side
The power was transmitted to shafts of such that it inclined at 23 degree with the
conveyor through belt and pulley mechanism. horizontal plane (Fig. 2).
The selection of size was carried out using
standard formula (Khurmi and Gupta, 2011). Stone collecting trolley

The stone collecting trolley is used for

collection of stones. It is provided at the rear
side of the conveyor. The stone collecting
trolley is made of 10 mm iron bars. The size
of trolley is 118 cm × 45 cm × 25 cm. The
collected stones conveyed by conveyor and
Standard pulleys of 10 and 15 diameter were dropped into the collecting trolley which is
used. supported by two rubber wheels and one gate

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is provided in the rear side of trolley for the settings and proper attachments were made
unloading of the filled stones (Fig. 3). and preliminary tests were conducted. Tractor
drive wheel was marked with colored tapes for
Power transmission system easy counting of number of revolutions during
slip measurement. The performance
The conveyor was driven by P.T.O. of the parameters like bulk density, moisture content
tractor. The rotating motion of the P.T.O shaft of the soil, depth and width of cut, fuel
was transmitted to the driving gear through consumption, draft, field capacity and slip
shaft, gear reduction unit and belt pulley. were determined. The other details of
Power transmitted from PTO to bevel gear experimental fields are given in Table 1.
which is having 1:1.8 bevel gear ratio.
Results and Discussion
So that shaft-I transmits 540 rpm to shaft-II at
300 rpm. Shaft-II was connected to belt and While designing and development of the
pulley transmission system which transmits tractor operated stone collector, the basic
200 rpm. Shaft was clamped on two bearings emphasis was given on simplicity of
and care was taken on its alignment with the fabrication, use of locally available material
gear reduction input shaft. and minimum cost of fabrication. Anticipated
view of developed stone collector shown in
Experimental procedure Figure 4(b) and its specifications with all units
is shown in Table 2. Results obtained during
The instruments and equipment used for the the field performance of the developed stone
field test were two tractors, measuring tape, collector are shown below performance
soil sample auger, metallic core cylinder, parameters like draft, wheel slip, fuel
digital dynamometer, stop watch, etc. Before consumption and field efficiency are
conducting the actual field test, necessary discussed.

Fig.1 Detailed drawing of frame

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Fig.2 Detailed drawing of digging blade

Fig.3 Stone collecting trolley

Fig.4 a. Detailed drawing of stone collector; b. Developed stone collector

Table.1 Details of experimental field

Parameters Field
Type of soil Medium black
Moisture content, % (d.b.) 10.85
Total area of experimental field, m2 1242
Shape of field/plot Rectangular shape
Bulk density, g/cc 1.23

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Table.2 Detailed specifications of stone collector

Sr. Particular Specifications

1 Name of the equipment Stone collector
2 Type of hitch and its detail
Linkage 3 - point
Powered by PTO
3 Overall Dimensions
Length 1240 mm
Width 1810 mm
Height 950 mm
Weight 190 kg
4 Main Frame
Material of construction Mild Steel (L – section size: 40 mm × 40 mm × 3 mm)
Length 1170 mm
Width 1500 mm
5 Digging blade
Material of construction Spring steel blade
Shape Flat type with holes
Length 1150 mm
Width 250 mm
Thickness 7 mm
Fixed with Two tynes by bolting
Inclination angle 23˚
6 Conveyor
Length 98 cm
Width 86 cm
Angle 23˚
Belt strip width 50 mm
Diameter of rod 10 mm
Spacing between rods 50 mm
Number of L- section 14
Number of iron bars 14
Diameter of metal roller 70 mm
7 Stone collecting trolley
Length 1180 mm
Width 450 mm
Height 250 mm

Overall dimensions of developed stone Average depth of cut 10 cm for stone

collector are 1240 mm length, 1810 mm collector was observed. Stone collector
width and 950 mm height. Developed stone worked at higher working depth of operation.
collector was test in field and following The effect of wheel slip during operation of
performance parameters were obtained. developed stone collector was recorded

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7.58%. Draft was also determined and the References

value of draft 2107 N for stone collector was
recorded. Field efficiency was determined by Bhattacharyya, T., Pal, D., Mandal, C.,
standard procedure during operation and the Chandran, P., Ray, S., Sarkar, D.,
mean value of field efficiency was 76.05%. Srivastava, A., Sidhu, G. and Singh, R.
Fuel consumption was determined by 2013. Soils of India: historical
standard procedure and quantity of fuel perspective, classification and recent
during the operation of stone collector was advances. Journal of Current Science.
recorded 4.01 l/h. 104(10): 1308-1323.
Keigley, K. V. 2006. Rock separator with
The developed stone collector has worked beveled tines and removable grates.
satisfactorily in the field. The average field United States Patent. No.7066275 B1
efficiency, fuel consumption and cost of (27 July, 2006).
operation was 76.05%, 4.01 l/hand 2717.33 Kepner, R. A., Bainer R., Barger E.L. 2005.
Rs/ha respectively. The developed stone Principles of Farm Machinery. CBS
collector was found effective in the Saurastra Publishing Company. New Delhi, India.
region of Gujarat. A medium size of tractor Khurmi, R. S. and Gupta, J. K. 2011. A
can meet the draft. The field efficiency was Textbook of Machine Design. S. Chand
found satisfactory and fuel consumption was Publications. Ch-5, 120-180.
significantly reduced compared to other Smith, E. R. 2000. Rock picker. United States
implement. The stone collecting machine Patent. No. 6041866 (28 March, 2000).
enables the task to be completed in the Syed, M. N., Wankhade, A. M., Kalandare,
shortest time with minimum operating cost S., Kharwade, R. and Hole S. 2016.
and energy requirement. It would replace the Design of agriculture stone picker.
traditional practice of manual stone collecting International Journal for Engineering
and may lead to save time and cost. Applications and Technology. 6(2): 71-
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How to cite this article:

Rudani, M.R., R.G. Jakasania and Gupta, R.A. 2018. Design and Development of Stone
Collector. Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci. 7(04): 1424-1431.
doi: https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.704.161

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