Design and fabrication of a locally made motorized multi-grain crop planter

Abstract

Grain crops have been of great importance in providing food for man, feed for livestock and raw materials for some agro-based industries.  Studies in grain crops production in different parts of Nigeria have shown an increasing importance of the crops amidst growing utilization by food processing industries and livestock feed mills.  The pre-design experimentation was carried out on yellow maize (Zea mays), Ife Brown cowpea (Phaseolus vulgaris), Seed soybean (Glycine max) and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L). Some of the properties determined include size, geometric mean diameter, surface area and angle of friction. A locally made motorized vertical seed-plate grain crops planter was designed, fabricated and assembled.  Design criteria, calculations and analysis of various components of the machine were critically considered and determined in the cause of the development. The geometric mean diameter of 8.26 mm, 8.72 mm, 9.51 mm and 6.52 mm were recorded for maize, cowpea, groundnut and soybean grains respectively, with respective groove depths of 8 mm, 7 mm, 9 mm and 6 mm. It was revealed from the results that the planter has a uniform discharge rate and application rate. The optimum speed of the planter when operated manually was 24 rpm. The calculated field capacity of the planter is 0.187 ha/hr, average performance efficiency of 95.5% with the average discharge and application rates of 7.86 kg/hr and 42.1 kg/ha respectively. The planter when electrically operated has the highest efficiency of 98% with the average discharge and application rates of 14.28 kg/hr and 54.96 kg/ha respectively at a metering speed of 40 rpm.