Development of an Electro-Mechanical Controller for Adjusting Pump Stroke On-the-Go

Abstract. Nutrient application systems are designed to apply a relatively uniform amount of a fertilizer to agricultural fields. However, considerable variation in soil texture and other characteristics often occurs within and across production fields, which could have a major impact on fertilizer management strategies. Therefore, uniform application of a fertilizer over the entire field could be both costly and environmentally unsound. Due to their rugged design, crankshaft type piston pumps are widely used in agriculture-. The on-the-go outlet flow of these pumps can only be varied by changing the drive shaft speed for each pump stroke setting. But only a limited range of flow rates can be achieved by changing the drive shaft speed. There is a need for a controller which can adjust the pump stroke on-the-go, for real-time, variable-rate application of crop nutrients. The Clemson “Electro-mechanical controller for adjusting pump stroke on-the-go” was designed to replace the current manual stroke adjustment system on positive displacement piston pumps. This affordable system can be retrofitted on most John Blue - piston pumps for real-time adjustment of the pump stroke and can be controlled using pre-described position sequences (map-based) or real-time GreenSeeker sensor commands, combined with fertilizer calculation algorithms. In addition, it can adjust pump stroke manually, using an eclectic dial from the tractor‘s cab.