Development of landscape seed tape mixed weaving machine for rape and wheat

Landscape patterns have been integrated into the crop planting process, thereby developing the potential ornamental value of field crops, such as rape and wheat. A seed tape-weaving machine can be used to knit the seeds of crops into a specific paper tape for mechanized or ornamental planting. In this machine, the seeds are sucked into the paper tape at a constant speed via a vacuum pump, where the paper tape is bound together with biodegradable cotton thread. In this study, an improved weaving machine of seed tape was designed to mix the rape-wheat seeds for a landscape. The pattern automatically realized the regular arrangement of rape and wheat seeds in the seed tape. The key components were also designed for the typical weaving process of mixed seeds, including the air-suction seed-metering device and seed guiding tubes. Taking the commercialized rape seeds of Zhongshuang No.9 and wheat seeds of Zhengmai No.9023 as the test objects, four types of experiments were conducted: The seed metering performance test, the paper feeding accuracy test, the pattern weaving performance test, and the field test. The structural and operating parameters were also optimized for the better weaving effect in the improved weaving machine of seed tape. In the seed metering performance, the results showed that the main influencing factors were the negative air pressure, followed by the diameter of suction holes, and the motor speed in the air-suction type seed metering device. In rape seeds, the air-suction type seed metering device worked on the condition with the negative air pressure of 2 500 Pa, the suction hole with a diameter of 1.2 mm, and the motor speed of 3 r/min. In wheat seeds, the better seeding performance was achieved, where the airflow negative pressure of 2 500 Pa, the suction hole with the length of 3.9 mm×1.9 mm, and the motor speed of 3 r/min. Specifically, the seeding qualification rate was 94.1% and 92.2%, the multiple rates were 1.8% and 3.1%, and the miss seeding rates were 4.1% and 4.7%, for the rape and wheat seeds, respectively, indicating that both seed metering devices achieved the best seeding performance. The weaving performance test showed that: 1) There were good uniformity and even quality of paper feeding, where the variation coefficient of plant spacing was less than 6%; 2) When the total number of weaving points gradually increased in the range of 100 to 900, the variation coefficient of relative position in the pattern decreased first, then stabilized, and finally stabilized at about 17%; 3) The variation coefficient of weaving area first decreased and then stabilized, and finally stabilized at about 8%; 4) The accuracy of pattern weaving gradually increased, and then stabilized. The field test was performed on a 30×30 size pattern of five points star in a square. The results showed that the variation coefficient of relative position in the pattern was 18.26%, and the variation coefficient of weaving area was 10.87%. A better visual effect was achieved in the formed pattern. The improved weaving machine can be expected to improve the work efficiency, while reducing labor intensity and error probability, for the mechanized planting of field crops in landscape patterns. The findings can provide a new idea and solution for the modeling and implementation of landscape patterns with field crops, like rape and wheat, further to promote the development of rural tourism in China.