The effect of an all season collapsible tractor operator enclosure on driver comfort in three adverse environmental conditions

A collapsible tractor operator enclosure (CTOE) was designed and fabricated to provide comfort to the operators during all seasons of the year. A hydraulically operated arrangement is designed to open and close the collapsible enclosure frame which helps obtain different configurations of the CTOE as needed for a given outside environment. The different outside environments considered for the study include cold season (18–22 °C, 60–70% RH), hot season (32–35 °C, 80–90% RH) and dusty condition. The performance of different configurations of CTOE was evaluated with regard to comfort and safety to operators inside the enclosure during field and transport operations in different environmental conditions. The result shows that the CTOE configuration C (open condition with all sides closed) was able to provide comfort with an average subjective rating of 8.75 out of 10 in cold condition, whereas the CTOE configuration B (open condition with front, back and window open) was able to provide comfort with a rating of 7.75 out of 10 in hot condition. But with regard to dusty condition, no definite conclusion could be drawn except that all sides closed configuration may prevent dust.Relevance to IndustryThe results of this study can be applied to design all season CTOE for use in tractors, earth moving vehicles and other industrial vehicles to reduce drudgery and improve comfort of the operators.