Abstract
The seeding rates of the vacuum suction nozzle seeders are affected by the jumping height of the seeds on the vibrating seed hopper. This study was performed to investigate the optimum vibration condition of the seed hopper on the vacuum suction nozzle seeder for improving seeding performance. Experiments were carried out to determine the vibration conditions of the seed hopper by air pressure and eccentric weight, and to optimize the seed-pickup performance of each nozzle by suction pressure. As the result with the experiments, the fluctuations of the jumping height of the seeds were showed at amplitude 0.4 mm and frequency 42 Hz, and jumping heights of the seeds were increased as the air pressure increase and the eccentric weight decrease, regardless number of seeds of the hopper. The best seeding rate of the seed hopper was 98% at the 300-seed cell, when the condition of the seed hopper was the suction air pressure of 94.6 kPa-abs., amplitude and frequency of the seed hopper vibration were at 0.57 mm and 43.6 Hz, respectively. The optimum vibrating conditions of the seed hopper were decided into frequency 43.6-43.8 Hz and the amplitudes 0.61-0.62 mm.
