A new mobile pendulum test for detailed wear mechanism studies of tillage tools

To stay efficient, tillage tools need to retain their as-designed shape as long as possible. The tool materials should therefore be designed or selected to minimize wear. To achieve this, material and tool development should be based on counteracting the prevailing wear mechanisms. However, as replacement of tools in field testing is time consuming (and therefore costly), tool wear is typically assessed only after long tool usage, likely in different soils, and possibly first as the tool is worn out. This complicates studies of wear mechanisms. Quick tests, aimed at determining the wear mechanisms in different soils, fields, and conditions, are lacking. In this work a new mobile test has been developed and demonstrated. With this, the test samples only need to work the soil for 15 cm to provide a sufficient number of isolated scratches to perform subsequent analysis of the wear mechanisms. In this way, the test is quick, does not disturb the farming, and allows numerous tests in specific locations and at specific conditions. The rig is demonstrated in two soils, with a sand character and a clay character, respectively. When categorized into predominantly cutting or predominantly plowing, the scratches produced by the sandy soil exhibited a higher tendency to be of a cutting nature. This confirms the generally accepted view that sandy soils are more abrasive. It was also demonstrated that increased moisture content in a soil can reduce its abrasiveness. • A new mobile rig for quick and local field test of agricultural tools was developed • Relevant wear mechanisms were observed after passing through only 15 cm of soil • The method enables detailed analysis of individual scratches on field tested samples • The influence of soil texture and moisture on the wear mechanisms was demonstrated