Agriculture & Food, Volume 10, 2022

Rezumat: It is known that the soil tillage process for the sowing of the crops is one of the most important agricultural works involving both large energy consumption and high costs. The quality of seed-bed preparation influences the degree of germination and crop productivity. The soil tillage process is influenced by many factors. Usually, these factors are: pedological factors (soil texture, organic matter, clay mineralogy, soil structure, soil bulk density, moisture content, respectively: external friction, soil- metal adherence, soil cohesion, soil resistance to penetration), technological factors (forward speed, working depth, working width), and constructive factors (type of tool, geometry of tool, technical condition of tool, adjustment mode of tool). All these factors determine the mechanical energy necessary to effectuate the soil tillage process, energy which contain the following terms: energy required to cut the soil, energy required to overcome the external friction forces, energy required to move the soil, energy required to overcome the adhesion forces, energy required for displacement of the tools, and the energy required to overcome the inertia forces (if the speed of the agricultural machine is not constant). In this paper, more complex scheme of the soil tillage process and the relationships between the factors of influence are presented, with concrete application for the agricultural vibro-cultivator used in conservation tillage systems, which can make the preparation of the seedbed for sowing in one pass with minimum consumption of energy, without causing the degradation of agricultural soil.