DESIGN AND TEST OF A CLAMPING-SHEAR INTRA-ROW WEEDING DEVICE

Aiming at the complexity and insufficient adaptability of current weeding devices for ridge tillage, this paper presents the design of a clamping-shear weeding device that mimics the hand-grabbing motion. Through the force analysis of the weed root system, the optimal shovel surface inclination angle is determined to be 10°~40°. To ensure the sliding cutting condition, the shovel blade angle is calculated and determined as 30°. Based on the Mohr-Coulomb shear theory, the weed resistance model is developed, and the shovel width is set at 50 mm based on the principle of minimum resistance. A single-factor test was conducted with the soil penetration depth of 40 mm and the clamping-shear speed of 4 cm/s, the results showed that the weed removal rate was over 85% and the crop injury rate was less than 6%, meeting the operational requirements of intra-row weeding. The optimal performance was observed with the shovel inclination angle of 30°.