Technically evaluation of domestically manufactured sprayer booms and status determination of crop sprayers

In Turkey, domestic tractor mounted crop sprayers are one of the most used plant protection machines. Manufacturers of crop sprayers manufacture crop sprayer which have different tank volumes, work widths, nozzles, control units etc. available on it to produce very different types of products. In this study, a survey on tractor mounted crop sprayers was conducted by interviewing face to face with nineteen different manufacturers total, taking into consideration the factories which produced the most crop sprayers in nine different cities in Turkey and technical information about tractor mounted crop sprayers boom manufactured by the companies. Technical issues apart from the sprayer booms, companies and products for sprayer manufacturers; compliance machine safety regulations, costs of steel components of sprayers were asked and the data obtained were evaluated. According to the results obtained, 48% of the companies manufacture crop sprayers with 400 L tank capacity and 10 m sprayer boom width most commonly. Static and modal analyzes were made by modeling in three different types of sprayer boom designs (simple beam, simple beam with cantiliever beam profile tip and fully cantilever beam profile ) in a CAD (Computer Aided Design) program. According to results of analysis; it is determined that the rigid sprayer boom design is a fully cantilever beam profile system design type. 94.74% of the manufacturing companies stated that they produce the products which are in compliance with the Machinery Safety Directive and 35.46% of them are consumables as the highest cost in the production of the sprayer booms.