Analysis of ways to ensure self-propellation of vibratory plate compactors

Self-propelled plate compactors are surface-action soil compaction machines with a flat working device set in a state of oscillatory motion by means of a vibration exciter. The most effective way to ensure self-propelled plate compactors is to use the energy of the vibrational motion of the vibratory plate itself. In recent decades, various designs of self-propelled plate compactors have been industrially produced, but existing studies cover only two groups of plate compactors: forward plate compactors with a single-shaft vibration exciter of cir-cular oscillations and reversible plate compactors with a two-shaft vibration exciter of directional oscillations. At the same time, an increase in the number of unbal-ances and/or a change in their location relative to each other makes it possible to solve more complex problems of vibratory plate control, namely, the implementation of remote control, movement to the sides or along an arc, movement along a slope, etc. The aim of the study was to collect and analyze data on industrially pro-duced models of self-propelled vibratory plates. It was found that the most widely used are forward plate com-pactors with a single-shaft exciter of circular oscilla-tions and reversible plate compactors with a two-shaft exciter of circular oscillations. At the same time, the main trends of recent decades are an increase in the number of unbalance shafts and the introduction of designs that provide remote control of the vibratory plate. An increase in the number of unbalance shafts also allows achieving higher values of the driving force.