Assessing the equipment level of technical service enterprises in the agricultural sector of the Volga federal district

Introduction. The level of technological equipment and quality of equipment placement at the technical service enterprises have a significant impact on the size of work areas and the efficiency of travel paths for moving items of agricultural machinery under repair. The purpose of research is to assess the actual equipment level and the quality of equipment placement at the specific work areas of technical service enterprises. Material and Methods. The quality of the equipment placement at technical service enterprises is determined by comparing the actual and standard values of the coefficient that takes into account the size of work areas and travel paths for moving items of agricultural machinery under repair in particular work areas. There has been proposed a method for determining the level of equipment on the basis of the equipment deterioration and the coefficient of the equipment placement density. Results. Eighty percent of the work areas do not comply with the basic standards of technological design. The actual value of the equipment placement density coefficient at the work areas under research was 1.1-42.8. The average value of the coefficient was 12.5 for enterprises with a fleet of less than 25 tractors, 10.2 for enterprises with a fleet of 25 to 50 tractors and 8.6 for enterprises with a fleet of more than 50 tractors. The share of the work areas with high density of equipment placement was 13.3%, with average density 40.0% and with low density 46.7%. The coefficients closest to the standard values were found in the work areas for repairing the hydraulic systems and oil equipment, restoring machinery parts with polymer composites, and for painting and drying. The values of the coefficient of equipment placement density at such basic work areas as for bench-working and assembling, forging works, welding, fusing, and etc. in some times differ from the standard values. Discussion and Conclusion. The conducted research showed that most of work areas of technical service enterprises in the Volga Federal District have a low level of equipment. The results of the study will allow optimizing the size of the work areas and ensuring the efficiency of travel paths for moving items of agricultural machinery under repair within the buildings.