Machinery Capacity

Description of this tool

This is a simple spreadsheet intended to help farmers, dealers, or others size
machinery more appropriately. It is very simple in that it does not consider
economics, interaction with other machinery, and requires the user to have a
good sense of probability of a working day (likelihood of being able to do a
certain operation on a given day).

This tool may be freely used, refined, updated as long as credit to the source is
given. It is protected to prevent inadvertent changes, but the protection is
without password so that those inclined and suitably knowledgeable may
customize the tool. For those that want to edit, note there is one hidden sheet
working in the background.

Brief instructions:
We hope this tool is simple enough to avoid the need for a user manual. Inputs
are grouped together and output follows. There are two sections. The first is to
compute what capacity (ac/h) is the target. The second estimates the capacity
of a particular machine. You'll want to have the capacity of the machine near
the value of the capacity needed. All inputs use data validation to confirm valid
entries.

Author Dennis Buckmaster, Professor & Dean's Fellow for Digital Agriculture
Affiliation Purdue University, Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Date December, 2021
URL to acquire https://engineering.purdue.edu/~dbuckmas/outreach/Machine_capacity.xlsx
Google Sheets equivalent https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16dyB64PgqH70FU45PgIVSalkCgL8yaGD9I2NcCHojt4
Related tools: Cycle Analysis https://engineering.purdue.edu/~dbuckmas/outreach/cycle%20diagram
Benchmarking Tractor Costs: https://engineering.purdue.edu/~dbuckmas/research/tractor_cost.xlsx
SalkCgL8yaGD9I2NcCHojt4/edit?usp=sharing
outreach/cycle%20diagram.xls
research/tractor_cost.xlsx
PART 1: Capacity needed to get the job done
INPUTS - describe your scenario
A Area to cover 500 acres
pwd Probability of a working day 35 %
H Hours for this work 6 h/day
D Window of opportunity 25 days
OUTPUT
CN Capacity needed 9.5 acres/h =A/(D*H*pwd/100)

PART 2: Capacity estimate of a machine

INPUTS - compute based on "what if I had this?"
SM selected machine Mulcher-packer
SO speed option typical
W width of implement 20 ft
EO efficiency option high
INTERMEDIATE CALCULATIONS
CS code for speed 2 -- =VLOOKUP(SO,LOOKUPDATA!B21:C23,2,FALSE)
CE code for efficiency 3 -- =VLOOKUP(EO,LOOKUPDATA!B21:C23,2,FALSE)
S Speed 5 mph =VLOOKUP(SM,LOOKUPDATA!B6:L19,CS+4)
E Field Efficiency 0.90 decimal =VLOOKUP(SM,LOOKUPDATA!B6:L19,CE+1)/100
OUTPUT
CM Capacity of machine 10.91 acres/hour =S*W*E/8.25