Design and Test of Pneumatic Cleaning System for Potato Micro-seed Seeding

ABSTRACT To improve the level of precise seeding mechanization of potato micro-seed, a new type of pneumatic cleaning system has been designed. The system adopts a pneumatic cleaning method to achieve precise seeding. Based on analyzing the force of potato micro-seed, the parameters of cleaning airflow velocity and spoon negative pressure have been determined. The test bench of seeding device has been build and the Box-Behnken test design method has been adopted. Taking the cleaning airflow velocity, the spoon negative pressure, the driving wheel velocity, and the seed layer height as the test factors, the missing seed index and the qualified seed index as the evaluation indicators, the quadratic regression orthogonal test has been performed to optimize and determine the best combination of each parameter. Test results showed that when the cleaning airflow velocity was 26.6 m/s, the spoon negative pressure was 4.2 KPa, the driving wheel velocity was 43.7 r/min, and the seed layer height was 32.9 cm, the missing seed index was 1.5% and the qualified seed index was 93.2%. The system can realize single precise seeding of potato micro-seed seeding.