The Method of Calculating Ploughshares Durability in Agricultural Machines Verified on Plasma-Hardened Parts

Reliability consists of four components: failure-less operation, maintainability, durability, and preservation ability. For different machines and different conditions of operation, different combinations of these properties, and differences in how they are balanced and proportioned are essential. For tractors, the most important aspect of reliability is maintainability, while for agricultural machines, durability is most important. Using the example of a ploughshare, the issue of increasing the durability has been studied; a method for calculating the durability of a ploughshare for various types of soils has been described. The use of plasma hardening of the surface of a 65G-steel ploughshare has been proposed; the effectiveness of plasma hardening of soil-cutting parts and its economic feasibility have been proved. Due to hardening to a depth of 1–1.8 mm, the service life of parts increases by 2–3 times; moreover the downtime of expensive machine-tractor units for replacing worn-out parts is reduced.