Study of Physical Properties of Zea mays in the Development of Seed Metering Unit

Abstract

The physical properties of seeds are very important to optimize the design parameters of various agricultural equipment used in their production, handling, and storage processes. Determination and use of these properties are also essential for the development of optimum seed metering mechanism and also in the design of a hopper for a planter for precise sowing of seeds. Physical properties such as length, surface area, breadth, roundness, equivalent diameter, sphericity, angle of repose, and coefficient of friction were determined for the development of the seed metering unit. The physical properties of seeds were calculated initially. Three varieties of maize seed Rasi-3033, NMH-589, and KMH-2589. The mean values of seed length, width, thickness, sphericity, geometric mean diameter, surface area, bulk density, coefficient of static friction, angle of repose, and thousand kernel weight were 11.00 mm, 7.75 mm, 4.58 mm, 0.65, 7.09 mm, 158.14 mm2, 746.4 kg m-3, 0.60, 28.17o and 0.23 kg, respectively. These properties were used in the development of efficient planter components to work effectively