Experimental Optimization and Performance Evaluation of a Socket-Wheel Sesame Seed Metering Device

Abstract

To address the practical challenges in sesame cultivation such as low efficiency in manual sowing, labor-intensive and time-consuming thinning and fixing of seedlings after emergence, and the lack of suitable precision hole-seeding devices leading to issues like reseeding and missed seeding -an optimized design of a precision sesame seed metering device with a cell wheel mechanism has been developed. Key parameters of the seed metering device's critical components have been systematically optimized. Taking the rotational speed of the seed metering wheel, the number of cells, and the cell diameter as experimental factors, and using the qualified rate of seeds per hill, the reseeding rate, and the miss-seeding rate as evaluation indices, a three-factor, three-level quadratic orthogonal rotational composite design was conducted. The optimal parameter combination for the seed metering device was determined through analysis as follows: a seed metering wheel speed of 15 (r/min), 30 cells, and a cell diameter of 7 mm. Bench test results demonstrated that the qualified seed spacing rate reached 95.56%, with a reseeding rate of 2.61% and a miss-seeding rate of 1.83%, providing a design basis for the development of the socket-wheel sesame seed Metering Device.