DEVELOPMENT OF A VACUUM PRECISION SEEDER PROTOTYPE FOR ONION SEEDS

Shaaban, UA; Afify, M T; Hassan, G E; El-Haddad, ZA

doi:10.21608/mjae.2009.107381

DEVELOPMENT OF A VACUUM PRECISION SEEDER PROTOTYPE FOR ONION SEEDS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Graduate Student, Dept. of Agric. Eng. Moshtohor, Benha Uni., Egypt.

² Lecturer, Dept. of Agric. Eng. Moshtohor, Benha Uni., Egypt.

³ Director of The Agric. Eng. Res. Institute, ARC,Dokki , Giza , Egypt

⁴ Professor, Dept. of Agric. Eng. Moshtohor, Benha Uni., Egypt

10.21608/mjae.2009.107381

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop, construct and test a vacuum precision seeder prototype suitable for onion seeds. The developed prototype was fabricated from local materials (Stainless Steel 304). It was also designed to plant two rows with 70 mm apart instead of one row as the most onion vacuum seeders in the market. Tests were conducted at an indoor soil bin facility under different operational parameters. These parameters were three seed plates with different hole diameters (0.8, 1.0 and 1.2 mm), four levels of disc speeds (peripheral velocity of seed plate) (0.08 (7.3), 0.14 (12.5), 0.21 (18.7) and 0.28 m/s (24.4-rpm)), four levels of blower speeds (4000, 4500, 5000 and 5500-rpm) and three level of forward speeds (2.7, 3.6 and 5.3 km/h). Measurements were taken for the actual seed spacing, seed miss index, seed multiple index, quality of feed index, precision in spacing and the vacuum pressure in the hole. Results indicated that the optimum values of the actual seed spacing (5.93 mm), seed miss index (8.1%), seed multiple index (8.12%), quality of feed index (83.7%), precision in spacing (23.4%) and the vacuum pressure in the hole (4.75 kPa.) were obtained with the seed plate of 1.0 mm hole diameter. Results of statistical analysis showed that the most desirable conditions in terms of operating developed prototype were obtained with the seed plate of 1.0 mm hole diameter at 0.21 m/s (18.7-rpm) disc speed, 4500-rpm blower speed and at 3.6 km/h forward speed. It also indicated that there was no appreciable difference between the two rows of the developed prototype under different operational conditions.

Main Subjects

Agricultural Power and Machinery Engineering

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