Development of Visual Basic Program to Design Front Mounted Three-Point Linkage for Higher Power Tractors

In higher power tractors, to fully utilize the available power and for timeliness of tillage operations, front mounted three-point linkage is another option. With this view, a user friendly computer program is developed in Visual Basic environment to design of front mounted three-point linkage. The input parameters of the developed program are mainly speed of operation, type of implement, mast height, PTO power, angle of links, hydraulic pressure, yield strength of materials etc. The program is capable to compute draft, forces on linkage, links dimensions, link points, design of hydraulic cylinder, minimum hydraulic lift capacity etc. ASAE draft equation is used to calculate draft and horizontal and vertical forces on links are calculated to determine safety against bending of links. A front three-point linkage is fabricated as per dimensions provided by developed program. Developed visual basic program is simple, cheap and practically useful to design front mounted linkage.