AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS
Academic Year 2024/2025 - Teacher: Giuseppe Ezio MANETTOExpected Learning Outcomes
Basic knowledge of agricultural machinery and its main components, settings, and operating techniques, aimed at increasing effectiveness and reducing negative impacts on the environment and crops, as well as risks to operators. Knowledge of the selection criteria in accordance with the objectives of the intervention, while respecting the constraints imposed by agronomic aspects, product hygiene, environmental protection, and operator safety.
Course Structure
Lectures (21 hours) supported by slides, and exercises (42 hours) consisting of practical application analyses, seminars, and visits to local farms.
If teaching is delivered in a hybrid or online format, necessary adjustments may be made to the above methods to ensure the program outlined in the syllabus is followed.
To ensure equal opportunities and in compliance with current regulations, students can request a personal interview to discuss any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures, based on their specific needs and the educational objectives of the course.
Students may also contact the departmental representatives of CInAP (Center for Active and Participatory Integration - Services for Disabilities and/or Learning Disabilities), including Professor Anna De Angelis.
Required Prerequisites
Knowledge of mathematics and physics (vectors, kinematics, statics, dynamics, thermology, thermodynamics).
Attendance of Lessons
Attendance of the course is not mandatory, but it is strongly recommended to facilitate the understanding of theoretical aspects and to assist in evaluating the conditions for selecting the appropriate machines to be used in a real-world context.
Detailed Course Content
After a review of the International System of measurement units, elements of mechanics applied to machines will be addressed with reference to machine efficiency, passive resistances, adherence, and systems for motion transmission. An overview of energy sources, energy production systems, and endothermic engines of agricultural interest will be provided. Tractors, machines for growing a soil, and operating machines for soil tillage, seeding, fertilization, plant protection, pruning, and harvesting will be discussed, including their description, adjustment, effects, and impacts on the soil, plants, people, and the environment.
Textbook Information
The lecturer provides all the slides used to cover the topics outlined in the program during class, in order to serve as a guide for individual study. Therefore, lecture notes will also be important. Additionally, the following texts are recommended, while students are free to consult any other books related to the topics covered.
| Author | Title | Publisher | Year | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bodria L., Pellizzi G., Piccarolo P. | Meccanica e meccanizzazione agricola | Edagricole | 2013 | 9788850654130 |
| Lazzari M., Mazzetto F. | Meccanica e meccanizzazione dei processi produttivi agricoli | Reda | 2016 | 9788883612558 |
Course Planning
| Subjects | Text References | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Course presentation – Review of the International System of measurement units | Book 2 – Lecture notes |
| 2 | Definition and classification of the machines – Machine general equations – Efficiency of the machines | Book 1 – Book 2 – Lecture notes |
| 3 | Passive resistance to external friction (for sliding, rolling, bearing and thrust pins) and relationships – Grip and traction effort | Book 2 – Lecture notes |
| 4 | Components (gear wheels, belts and pulleys, couplings and clutches), ordinary and differential gear trains, and mechanisms for motion transmission | Book 1 – Book 2 – Lecture notes |
| 5 | Endothermic engines with spark ignition (Otto cycle) and compression ignition (Diesel and fast Diesel or Sabathé cycles): strokes and phases, advantages and disadvantages, characteristic curves (power, torque, specific consumption), efficiency, regulation | Book 1 – Lecture notes |
| 6 | Pumps and fans: definition, classification, fields of application, characteristics and operating limits, characteristic curves | Book 1 – Lecture notes |
| 7 | Tractors: definition, classification, description, transmission, devices for connecting implement machines, propulsion and support components, traction, longitudinal and lateral stability, tractor dynamics, hook performance, risks for operators and the environment – Motor-hoes and walking tractors | Book 1 – Book 2 – Lecture notes |
| 8 | Machines for extraordinary land cultivation work: bulldozers and angledozers, trenchers, stone pickers, drainage machines, subsoilers, graders | Book 1 – Lecture notes |
| 9 | Soil tillage machines | Book 1 – Book 2 – Lecture notes |
| 10 | Seeding and transplanting machines | Book 1 – Book 2 – Lecture notes |
| 11 | Fertilizer distribution machines | Book 1 – Book 2 – Lecture notes |
| 12 | Crop protection machines: classification, description, operation, regulation, risks for operators and the environment | Book 1 – Book 2 – Lecture notes |
| 13 | Pruning machines – Shredding machines for: shrubs, stalks, branches, vine shoots, grasses | Book 1 – Book 2 – Lecture notes |
| 14 | Harvesting machines | Book 1 – Book 2 – Lecture notes |
| 15 | Sizing of the tractor-implement coupling – Overview of machine performance in the field | Book 1 – Book 2 – Lecture notes |
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
Oral examination covering the entire program.
The evaluation will take into account the relevance and quality of the answers provided, as well as the use of appropriate technical language, the ability to reason, and the capacity to connect the transversal knowledge acquired throughout the various parts of the program.
Exam dates can be found on the website of the Department of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the following link: https://www.di3a.unict.it/courses/l-25/exams-calendar.
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
- General equation of machines
- Efficiency of machines in series or parallel
- Friction and grip: causes and influencing factors
- Traction effort
- Gear trains and gearboxes: transmission ratio, definition of ordinary gear train, and examples
- Differential: description and function
- Motion transmission with flexible elements: transmission ratio, application limits, advantages, and disadvantages
- Couplings and clutches: differences, types, and application limits
- Cardan shaft: description, homocinecity conditions, safety aspects
- Push crank mechanism: description, function, applications
- Endothermic engines (2-stroke and 4-stroke): cycles, differences, efficiency, supercharging
- Positive displacement and fluid dynamic pumps: types, description, applications, and limits
- Fans: types, description, applications, and limits
- Tractors: classification and description
- Transmission in tractors
- Tractor-implement coupling: description of coupling methods, calculation methods for choosing the tractor based on the implement or vice versa
- Machines for extraordinary land cultivation work: description, functions, effects on the soil, and operator safety
- Machines for ordinary soil tillage: description, functions, adjustment, effects on the soil, and operator safety
- Sowing machines: description, adjustment, effects on the soil, and operator safety
- Crop care machines: description, adjustment, and effects on operator safety
- Harvesting machines: description, adjustment, and effects on operator safety
- Identification of a machine from a photo