Introduction

An agricultural machine for the mechanical control of weeds by means of surface tillage. It is called “active disc harrow”, capable of operating both non-selectively in pre-emergence and selectively in post-emergence of the herbaceous or horticultural crop.
The multi-purpose equipment proposed is extremely versatile; it can be equipped with elastic weeders (pairs of spring-loaded teeth 25 cm long and 6 mm thick) or with working parts with different diameter, so as to allow precision weeding operations even in late post-emergence of the crop.

Technical features

The equipment proposed, currently made in a single module with a working front of 1.6 and 2 m, can include several modules and reach very large working widths (up to 12 m and more). The active disc harrow is equipped with a frame that supports spiked discs (front) and cage rollers (rear), currently 35-40 cm in diameter, mounted on two axles (fig. 1a). The discs and rollers can have two different arrangements on the two axes: (I) close to each other and in such a way that the entire surface can be worked (fig. 2 (a)), (II) spaced out and in such a way that selective post-emergence work (precision weeding) can be carried out correctly (fig. 2 (b)). The action mode of the active disc harrow involves firstly the passage of the spiked discs, which move the soil to a depth of 3-4 cm, followed by the passage of the cage rollers, which operate at high peripheral speed (the rear axle is driven by a multiplier with a transmission ratio >2 from the front axle) at a much shallower depth (1-2 cm).

Possible Applications

• Manufacturers of agricultural machinery;
• Agricultural sector, especially biological for mechanical and thermal control of wild flora;
• Hoeing on very different distances between rows (min 15 cm and no limits on max values);
• “Conservative” and “protective” inter-row work in vineyards and orchards.

Advantages

• Versatility harrow: one machine for multiple aims;
• Intense refinement with aggregate stratification (anti-crust and anti-erosive action);
• Weed control even in conditions of high humidity and plasticity of the soil;
• Very low cost.