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TAFE sponsors SAEISS Tractor Design Competition - 2018
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TAFE and SAEISS inspire young minds to design tractors

Nurturing young minds is an essential part of TAFE’s journey of Cultivating the World. With the significant increase in the tractor industry’s growth, it is evident that farm mechanization is a key factor in the success of our country’s agricultural sector. Encouraging the youth of the country to take more interest in farming and empowering them with knowledge on the industry is essential to accelerate this growth.

SAE INDIA Southern Section (SAEISS) has been organizing a Tractor Design Competition (TDC) since October 2016 for the undergraduate engineering students of India. The competition was launched by SAEISS in the presence of Mr. Cuneyt Oge, SAE International and gives engineering students an opportunity to understand the customer requirements, design, build and test various tractor models, including a 17 hp tractor. The engineering students have to design, manufacture, assemble, and prove their tractors before a team of technical experts.

This year, the SAEISS Tractor Design Competition was sponsored by TAFE, and Simpsons, and engineers from both TAFE and Simpsons conducted three workshops on the various aspects of tractor design. Each team submitted their design report which was evaluated by the chief judges Mr. C. Varadarajan and Mr. S. Nakkeran. The judges visited the colleges of the 22 registered teams in March 2018 for a preliminary inspection and gave feedback which significantly helped the teams enhance their tractor designs.

The finals of the competition was hosted by SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST) at their Kattangulatur campus, Chennai from 21st to 23rd June, 2018. The competition included design report presentation, and technical inspection of the tractor for both safety and performance. Out of the 22 registered teams, 16 teams demonstrated their tractors in maneuverability and durability tracks. The team from Government College of Technology, Coimbatore was the overall champion and SAEISS TDC – 2019 was launched during the valedictory function.

This tractor design competition is a first of its kind in Asia with a primary objective to encourage interest in the design of tractor and to improve students’ employability. In addition to building technical competencies, student engineers learn to prepare business cases for the project, behavioral competencies like communication, team work and leadership skills.

Tractor Design Competition 2018 was inaugurated by Mr. S. Sriraman, Chairman, SAEISS and Senior Vice President (R&D), TAFE on June 21, 2018. He appreciated the hard work put in by students and their faculty advisors to reach the finals and told students to make use of the opportunity to discuss various aspects of design with the Industry experts during the course of this event. Dr. D. Kingsly Jeba Singh, Dean, School of Mechanical Engineering., SRMIST, and Mr. P. S. Rajamani, Whole Time Director, Simpsons, Chennai also attended the event as guests.

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Taking the tractor to the masses

TAFE has always prided itself in being a learning organization. It has always been at the forefront of fostering learning; be it the ‘Product Training Centre’ – first of its kind in the tractor industry, instituted by Mr. A Sivasailam in 1963, to train all dealer and company employees who deal with TAFE customers, or the TAFE e-University that has revolutionized learning at the work place for all TAFE employees.

Apart from the learning that is imparted within the organization, TAFE regularly works with organizations like SAE India and CII reaching out to the next generation of students. Recently, in a lecture – ‘Trend of Transmission for Tractors’, conducted by SAE Southern Section – Chennai Division, Mr. T R Karthikeyan, Deputy Chief Engineer – R&D addressed a gathering of college students from engineering colleges in and around Chennai at AIEMA, Chennai.

Mr. T R Karthikeyan during his talk spoke about different transmissions like, Manual/Straight Shift, Synchronized Shift, Semi-Automatic, Continuously Variable and Hydrostatic, found in various tractor brands in India. He explained in detail how each system worked with the aid of videos. It was a deeply insightful interaction that helped the participants understand the in-depth workings of a tractor transmission.

In another SAEISS event, Mr. S Sriraman, Senior Vice President – R&D, TAFE and Chairman of SAEISS spoke to the participants of the Fifth Lecture Meeting jointly-organized by SAEISS Erode Division and Collegiate Club on ‘Tractors for Modern Farming’. Held at Vellalar College of Engineering and Technology, Erode, Mr. Sriraman enlightened the delegates with a broad outlook on the trends in the Indian agriculture sector and its various developments. He spoke of TAFE’s active role in improving farming practices.

We congratulate the R&D team and wish them the very best for their future endeavors.

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TAFE at SAE's Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress
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TAFE R&D showcases its findings at SAE COMVEC

Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited’s (TAFE) journey over five decades has been one that has always been focussed on the customer. It caters to the diverse needs of the customer from all around the world by providing relevant solutions. With a farm-to-lab approach, TAFE keeps stride with the dynamic needs of the customer with a proactive and keen interest in R&D.

This understanding was on show at SAE’s latest edition of the Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress (COMVEC) when TAFE’s Mahendra Mohan PR – Senior Member (Transmission), R&D, presented a paper titled “Minimizing Tooth Mesh Misalignment in Heavy Duty Tractor Transmission”. With the theme of ‘connectivity’, the gathering is a global assembly of both on and off-road professionals. It’s a great platform facilitating valuable interaction amongst the community of engineers, supply managers and executives.

Tooth Mesh Misalignments originate primarily from its torque transmitting components such as spline connections, gears, shafts, bearings and housing. Mahendra Mohan’s paper is a case study of two factors influencing mesh misalignment: (1) bearing offset and (2) gear hub, as an initiative to minimize the amount of tooth mesh misalignment on gear pair. Advanced driveline analysis tools were used to analyze and calculate the amount of misalignment on the gear tooth mesh. The optimized gear pair showed more than 40% reduction in tooth mesh misalignment and more than 10% reduction in peak contact stress during initial design stage.

The paper was well received by the delegates. We wish Mahendra Mohan all the very best for all his future endeavours and congratulate TAFE R&D for consistently facilitating such papers – a sign of a learning organization!

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