Plant Protection Equipment(PPE)

Prepared by

Er.Uttam Raj Timilsina(MSc.Engineering,IIT Roorkee)

Professor of Agricultural Engineering,AFU

uttamrajtimilsina@gmail.com, 9841684994 For

Batch 2069/2070,BSc.Ag,4th semester(071/7/16-071/10/15)

Course Code:AEN-301,Farm Power and achinery(1+1

Plant Protection Equipment(PPE)

Types of Sprayers and Dusters

Working principle and components of sprayers

Nozzles used on sprayers and their selection

Safety in handling plant protection machines

PP Equipment Plant Protection Equipment(PPE):-These equipments are

used to apply insecticides,pesticides,herbicides to the crops to protect from insects pests and plant diseases.The most common equipments are sprayers and dusters.

Classification of sprayers and dusters

Manually operated sprayers and dusters:-Suitable for small holdings and are operated at pressure ranging from 1-7 kg/sqcm

Engine operated sprayers and dusters:-Suitable for large areas and are operated at pressure ranging 20-50 kg/sqcm

Tractor PTO operated sprayers and dusters:-Suitable for large scale works with higher working pressure of 20-50 kg/sqcm

Air plane operated sprayers and Dusters:-Suitable for large scale commercial farming with proper working pressure

Requirements of a good Sprayers

It should distribute the chemical uniformly on plant surface

It should have provision to increase or decrease the quantity of insecticides application

It should break the liquid into fine droplets

It should have provision to control or regulate the size of droplets

PPE

• Parts of sprayers:-

Pump:-plunger type pump , centrifugal type pump,rotary type pump are in use

Tank:-Metal tanks or fiber glass tanks of capacity variation of 400-1500 litres are in use with suction pipe and drain plug

Agitator:-To mix the chemicals before spraying or during operation.Mehnanical and hydraulic agitators are in use

Air chamber:-It is provided with plunger to create working pressure

Pressure gauge:- To measure working pressure

Pressure regulator:-To regulate working pressure

Pipes and nozzles:-To distribute the chemical under working pressure with metallic or rubber pipes

PPE

Types of Sprayers:- Bucket type Sprayers:- It consists of a single or double

acting pump, placed into any ordinary bucket containing spraying solution to create required pressure to spray small garden and low trees

Knapsack Sprayer:-It consists of pump and large air chamber mounted in a 9-22 litres tank.It is quite useful for spraying small trees,shrubs, and row crops maintaining a uniform pressure by keeping the pump in operation.It generally carried on the back of the operator and one man can spray about 0.4 ha in a day spraying about 90 litres of liquid

Bucket type sprayer

Knapsack sprayer

Knapsack sprayer

Knapsack sprayer

PPE

Compression Sprayers:-These are of common/utility types of hand compression as well as foot compression sprayers and consists of parts like pump,pump handle,airtightchamber,pipe ,nozzle etc.Pump is mounted in an airtight chamber which is filled three quarters full with spraying liquid.Pressure is develop by pumping air into the tank and the spray is forced out under pressure.The tank capicity is usually 14 litres.Frequent pumping must be done to maintain the pressure.

Hand Compression sprayer

Foot Compression sprayer

Foot sprayer

PPE

Hand Atomizer :-It is the smallest type of hand sprayer used to treat the plants in home garden or nursery and to apply fly spray in the house.It consists of compression pump and compressed air is allowed to pass over the end of the tube of which the other end dips into the spray material.Blowing air sucks the materials through the tube and blows it out of the nozzle as a mist

PPE

Engine Powered sprayers:- These are usually portable types .Since the sprayer pump is driven by an engine, there is no variation in output,pressure and performance of the sprayer.These powered sprayer are also operated by the PTO shaft of tractor, mounted on tractor.Mostly gear pump is used in the sprayer for pressure regulation.

Engine powered sprayer

Engine powered Sprayer

PTO shaft operated Boom Sprayer

PPE

• Air plane sprayer:-It consists of gear pump or centrifugal pump to force/ to spray liquid through the nozzle with the pressure range of 3-8.5 kg /sqcm.The pump gets its drive from a wind driven propeller having 4-6 blades.Lightweight aluminium tank of capacity of 450-2200 litres is used to store the liquid depending upon the size of plane.

PPE

• Dusting Machines:-Dusters are classified as- Plunger type hand duster:-It consists of a chamber for the dust,

outlet,a cylinder with piston,piston rod and handle.By moving the piston back and forward in the cylinder dust is forced through the outlet.This type of duster is suitable for dusting a small areas.

Rotary type hand and power Duster:- In case of hand duster it consists of a enclosed fan, geared to a hand crank and a hopper holding the dust.It is equiped with an agitator and a regulator to control and regulate the discharge opening.The capacity varies 3.6-4.5 kg of dust and can cover 0.4-0.6 ha in a day. In case of powered duster it consists of cylindrical container,blower, high speed engine and hose pipe.The blower is directly connected with a high speed(4000rpm) air cooled engine and dust can be blown up to 6m height and can cover 1 ha in a day

Hand rotary duster

PPE

• Air plane Duster:- It is used to cover large areas in a short time and consists of a hopper,agitator and feeding device.Thecapacity ranges from 220-900 kg.The agitator and feeding device are operated by a small wind driven propeller mounted under the lower wing

Air plane duster

PPE

Nozzles used and their selection :-It is the main and important part of sprayer to spray an accurate amount of pesticides uniformly over a large areas with higher distribution efficiency as well as higher performance of uniformity in standing crops. Nozzles perform the following function

It meter liquid at certain flow rate (maximum 9 Litres/min)

Automize liquid into droplets

Disperse the droplets in specific pattern

Propells the droplets for proper impact

PPE The selection of nozzles at single operation or in multi

nozzle boom:- It depends upon the following: Type of spray job whether for insecticides,horbicides and

other pesticides Amount of spray solution to be applied per ha for each

spraying Row spacing and number of nozzles to be used per row for

row crops Nozzle spacing at boom for entire areas to be sprayed Type of spray pattern desired such as hollow cone

spray,solid cone spray, flat spray,even spray,flooding spray Speed of travel for tractor drawn spraying(4.8-8 km/h) Pressure to be used in spraying-for field crops spraying

pressure varies from 3-8kg/sq cm as low pressure and for orchard spraying 3-5 times higher of that as high pressure .

PPE

Type of Nozzles:- Centrifugal nozzle Flooding nozzle Two fluid atomizer Rotary atomizer Nozzles mainly consists of important parts as nozzle body,

nozzle tip,washer,strainer, nozzle cap The selection of nozzle type mostly depends upon spray

patterns of different nozzles which are hollow cone spray,solid cone spray, flat spray,even spray,flooding spray matching with condition of crops ,and situation of damage.

PPE Safety in handling plant protection machines:-Some of the spray

materials are poisonous and highly dangerous to the operators unless very great care is taken in handling them.Small amount of poison taken into body may produce no ill effect at first but being cumulating may suddenly give rise to serious poisoning.Thereforesome of the protection measures are as follows:-

Protective clothing must be worn during spraying Operators should avoid absorbing poison through the mouth,nose

or skin The spray should always be shut off when nozzles are to be cleaned

or changed Spraying in windy weather should be avoided When mixing poisonous chemicals ,care should be taken to avoid

splashing them into the skin Operators should not eat anything during spraying the insecticides Children should be kept away from the pesticides as well as away

from the plant protection equipment during operation as well during storing .

•Thank you