The article presents the problem of the wear of the components of injection apparatus of a self-ignition engine during the addition of water. The observer was subject to an injector from the KIPOR KDE3500E generator set engine. The tests carried out consisted in observing the atomizer after 120 minutes of running the engine powered with diesel oil and after working at the same time but with the addition of water to the intake manifold.

The article discusses the basic technologies of soil cultivation and presents the results of analyses of the effectiveness of the product resource base of ploughless cultivation machines manufactured in Poland. The study also describes the design of a prototype MultiCat 6HD aggregated tillage unit, which should be regarded as innovative, and presents the methodology of experimental research focused on the aggregated unit and machines for traditional plough tillage. The experiment determined fuel consumption, effective and operational efficiency, the depth of placing and mixing of crop residues and the indicator of crop residue surface embedding. Based on the conducted analyses, it was found that ploughless cultivation required approx. 30% less expenditure for fuel as compared to the traditional plough tillage. In addition, a more favourable distribution of plant material within the soil profile was found along with almost identical embedding of crop residues, as compared to the plough tillage. It was demonstrated that the application of ploughless cultivation based on the MultiCat 6HD aggregated unit would improve agricultural farm competitiveness.

Abstract. The paper refers to development of relationship between fatigue life and energy dissipated during process of fatigue. A theory about treating technical object as operational system, with limited potential for destruction was utilized. On the base of experiments, it was stated, that dissipated energy, which is stored in the object as a result of various kinds of wear processes, including fatigue can be such parameter. Amount of this energy was determined experimentally. It was found, that "consumption" of this energy depends on the value of the damping coefficient of the test object and the parameters of the oscillatory motion. Knowing the amount of this energy and accepting it as a "destruction capacity", it is possible to predict the fatigue life of an object under a given load.