Common Problems in the Use of Hose Reel Irrigation Machines and Their Solutions
As efficient water-saving agricultural irrigation equipment, hose reel irrigation machines are widely used in agriculturally developed countries such as Europe, America and Australia. Their development history spans more than 70 years, and a number of world-renowned brands have emerged, including Italy's Ocmis, France's Irriland and Austria's Bauer, and they are deeply popular with and well received by farmers. So what problems will you encounter when using a hose reel irrigation machine? How do you solve them?
1. Problems in using hose reel irrigation machines
1. Insufficient irrigation water. Users report that in dry weather, a hose reel irrigation machine cannot deliver a large volume of water, and the irrigation amount can reach at most only 20 m³/mu, so the soil surface dries quickly after irrigation. However, after sowing wheat and corn and during the heading stage, the irrigation amount must be 30-40 m³/mu. It is difficult to adjust the irrigation amount of the sprinkler irrigation machine, so it cannot meet the irrigation needs of wheat and corn.
2. Operating energy consumption is too high. It is estimated that irrigating one mu of land requires 23 kWh of electricity (calculated on the basis of a 7.5 kW submersible pump matched to a tube well and a 15 kW booster pump), about 13 yuan in electricity costs, so some users complain that the electricity cost of running the sprinkler irrigation machine is even more expensive than labour costs.
3. The sprinkler cart occupies land and crushes seedlings. When a tractor pulls the sprinkler cart into the field, it crushes two rows of crops about every 50 m, and it is hard for users to accept the land wasted by the sprinkler irrigation machine.
As for the third situation, it is acceptable to large grain growers, because there is no need to build water channels and field ridges, and the area these occupy is even greater than the land crushed by tractors. Moreover, users already had some understanding and awareness of this when purchasing, but they cannot accept the first and second problems, so many users complain after purchasing or leave the equipment idle.
2. Analysis of the causes of the problems
1. Product design
Since China introduced hose reel irrigation machines in the 1970s, apart from some larger state-owned farms, the domestic sales market has been very small, and only in recent years, with the rise of land transfer, has a new market gradually emerged, so there has been a lack of corresponding technological innovation and product upgrading. At the same time, after more than 30 years of development, sprinkler irrigation machine design and manufacturing technology in countries such as Europe, America and Australia has already been updated through several generations, but China still adopts designs from abroad from 30 years ago, such as the use of a two-speed gearbox transmission, where the speed regulation range is too large, causing the sprinkler irrigation machine to require great starting power to get going, but once started the speed cannot be reduced, so the recovery speed of the PE pipe cannot be lower than 15 m/h, making it impossible to meet users' irrigation demand of 30-40 m³/mu. Another example is the use of an inclined-jet water turbine structure, which results in excessively low hydraulic efficiency; in addition, the water turbine and gearbox are connected by a belt drive, and the transmission efficiency is relatively low, increasing the inlet pressure required by the sprinkler irrigation machine, generally requiring more than 0.6 MPa. If the inlet pressure exceeds 0.6 MPa, then in general each sprinkler irrigation machine also needs to be equipped with a booster pump, so that the hose reel irrigation machine in actual operation requires a tube-well submersible pump and a booster pump to run together, which will undoubtedly greatly increase operating costs.
2. Production processes
When hose reel irrigation machines first entered the market, each unit cost more than 100,000 yuan, but as market demand expanded, manufacturers sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain, surging from just a few to dozens of enterprises. With disorderly competition among enterprises, the price per unit dropped from more than 100,000 yuan to 70,000-80,000 yuan, then to 40,000-50,000 yuan, and all the way to the current 20,000-30,000 yuan. Enterprises can only reduce production costs, and product process flows are accordingly simplified. For example, gearbox gears that require gear grinding according to process requirements are changed to simple gear shaping, which reduces processing costs several times over, but the gears become rougher, and driving the gear transmission requires greater power and also increases noise. The water turbine requires heat treatment according to process requirements, but to reduce costs, heat treatment is not carried out, and rough machining reduces the efficiency of the water turbine accordingly. These simplified process flows directly increase the operating energy consumption of the sprinkler irrigation machine.