Design and experiment of pneumatic cylinder precision seed-metering device for panax notoginseng

Abstract: Notoginseng is one of rare medicinal herbs in China, and it is mainly grown in Yunnan Province. Market demand of notoginseng is very large, and hence, until December 2014, the planting area of notoginseng has reached 40000 hm2. At present, the main planting pattern is through manual operation, and the labor intensity is very high and the sowing quality is discrepant. However, there is no precision seeding device suitable for notoginseng. Therefore, the mechanization planting of notoginseng has important practical significance. Notoginseng is planted on small plots of land, the planting density and the requirement of seeding precision are high, so we designed a small sized precision metering device. The liquidity of the seeds is not good and the shape of seeds is irregular for notoginseng, so we chose the pneumatic seed-metering device to adapt to the characteristics of the seeds accordingly. In order to meet the precision seeding requirements of notoginseng planting, a unique pneumatic cylinder-type precision metering device was designed. This device integrated the features of vacuum suction, insulated pressure for seed-clearing and zero speed of seed dropping. In this paper, the main structure and the working principle of the metering device were expounded. The pitch-row of the hollow shaft was determined and the stability of the flow field was ensured by the flow field analysis through the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. The key structure parameters were determined through theoretical calculation according to planting requirements. The contrast test of dropping seed indicated that zero speed of seed dropping was necessity. According to the extensive testing combined with the experimental results of relevant scholars, the main factors which affected seeding performance of pneumatic cylinder precision seed-metering device were determined, which were forward velocity, negative pressure and adsorption angle. During the test process, in order to reach zero speed of seed dropping, the installation angle of adjustable insulated pressure plate was changed with forward velocity. The notoginseng seeds in Wenshan were chosen for sowing object. Based on the three-factor five-level quadratic orthogonal rotating combination test method, the influences of forward velocity, negative pressure and adsorption angle on sowing performance were explored. The experimental results showed that the influence of negative pressure on the qualified rate was very significant (P<0.01), and the influences of forward velocity and adsorption angle were significant (P<0.05). The regression equations of the 3 factors were fitted through the processing by Design Expert 8.0.6 (experimental design expert) software. Based on the results of examination, we found that the fitting of the equations was good, the best parameter combination was adsorption angle of 20°, negative pressure value of 660-720 Pa and forward velocity of 0.72-0.76 m/s, and under the optimal condition, the qualified index was greater than 90.2, the missing index was less than 4.9, and the multiple index was less than 5.3. The pneumatic cylinder precision seed-metering device met the standard and requirements by comparing the results with the national standard and notoginseng planting requirements. This approach of research is suitable for the exploitation of notoginseng seed-metering, and provides a theoretical reference for the design of pneumatic cylinder precision seed-metering device for Panax notoginseng.