Design and Development of Wooden Plate Metering Device for Onion Bulb Planter

Abstract

An inclined plate metering device for onion bulb planter was developed and its performance was evaluated in CAE, Lab, JNKVV, Jabalpur. Elevating error, cell fills, bulb damage, actual planting distance, mean planting distance, planting error and feed index were evaluated under the different peripheral speed of the rotor with respect to 3 angular positions of metering plate. It was found that elevating error was minimum (1.51%) at the metering plate inclination of 50° compared to 60° and 70° at the peripheral speed of 7.6 m/min. The cell fill was maximum (100.38%) due to double feed at the inclination angle of 50° compared to 60° and 70° at the peripheral speed of 7.6 m/min but the bulb damage was found nil at the inclination angle 500 at a peripheral speed 7.6 m/min. The bulb damage increases with an increase in peripheral speed of the rotor and actual planting distance, mean planting distance, planting error was minimum 10.79 cm, 11.08 cm, 1.92 cm respectively, with a maximum feed index of (93.17%) at minimum travel speed 0.6 km/h. However, the actual planting distance, mean planting distance, planting error increased and feed index decreased with the increase in travel speed, but the cell fill decreased with the increase in peripheral speed at all inclination positions.