Seeding experiments of suction cylinder-seeder with socket-slot

In order to achieve the nursing seedlings of super hybrid rice for factory production, and assure its working performance, the suction cylinder-seeder with socket-slot for experiment was designed and produced. The super hybrid rice Peizataifeng was selected as experimental object, and the effects of socket radius, slot width, vacuum and cylinder speed on cavity rate, reseeding rate and qualified rate of seeding were studied by the four factors and three-level orthogonal experimental method. Results indicated that the orders affecting cavity rate and qualified rate was socket radius > vacuum > cylinder speed > slot width, and the order affecting reseeding rate was socket radius > cylinder speed > slot width > vacuum. The optimal parameter combination was socket radius with 5.5 mm, vacuum with 4 kPa, cylinder speed with 0.82 rad/s and slot width with 1 mm. The cavity rate, reseeding rate and qualified rate of seeding were 4.88%, 9.78% and 85.34% respectively under condition of the optimal parameters. Although seeding performance should be further improved, the slots are never plugged, which shows that the seeder is a precision seeding device with good application prospect.