PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A DEVELOPED LOCAL SOD MOWER

A sod mower machine was developed and constructed to used in garden and club. Experiments were carried out to evaluate its performance and estimate the operational cost .The performance of the sod mower machine in terms of field efficiency, cutting efficiency, fuel requirements and mowing cost were investigated departing on of change in kinematics parameter (ratio of rotary peripheral velocity to forward speed), cutting mechanisms (single or double drum) and knife types (straight or curved with two blades) during the mowing operation of sod. The experimental results revealed that the use of the developed sod mower machine in order to maximized mower efficiency and minimized mower fuel consumption and operating cost under the following conditions: The operating mower a kinematics parameter of 20 which corresponded to forward speed of 0.24 m/s, knife velocity of 5 m/s was the optimum. The best adjusting of the knife of the machine at cutting height of 4 cm with moisture content 50 % was used cutting mechanism of double drum with straight knife (two blades).