Improvement of the Efficiency of Perennial Seed Mixtures Separation on a Drum Vibro Electric Separator

Abstract

Separation of seed mixtures plays a very important role in obtaining high‑quality seeds, which is characterized by the absence of hard‑to‑separate admixtures of weeds. The aim of the work was to improve the quality of seed mixtures of perennial grasses due to the use of the drum separator in the process of their additional cleaning. The conducted studies determined the basic geometric dimensions of the components of seed mixtures of perennial grasses and their coefficients of friction on various materials. The difference in their values was insignificant, as a result of which it was found that separating by these indicators is inappropriate. We can intensify the separation of the studied mixtures by using a drum vibro electric separator, where the separation takes place in a combination of frictional and electrical properties of the components. The main adjustable parameters of vibro electric separation established by previous studies were: the drum speed f = 8 rpn; the electric field of corona discharge E = 3.0 kV/cm; the oscillation frequency of the drum f1 = 50 Hz; drum amplitude A = 1,6 mm. With such parameters of separation we achieved the purity of the seed of the clover and the timothy grass in the range of 97…98 %, which, respectively, for 22.5 % and 17.5 % exceeds the purity of the original mixture.