Engineering Properties of Foxtail Millet Seeds for Development of Planter for Millet Crop

Abstract

Millets are sown by broadcasting and drilling by traditional implements. By using these tools, seeds were not distributed uniformly, which led to an excess of plants and irregular spacing. Furthermore, if seed is sown in a line rather than a spread pattern, harvesting and threshing activities become more efficient. In keeping the views of above facts, planter for millet seeds was developed. A study was carried out to measure the engineering properties of foxtail millet seeds for development of planter for millet crop. Engineering properties helps in design of machine parameters like type of seed metering mechanism, size of cell and hopper capacity etc. The engineering properties such as mean linear dimensions viz., length, width and thickness are 2.20 mm, 1.23 mm and 1.11 mm respectively. The physical properties like geometrical mean diameter, bulk density and true density of are 1.43 mm, 670.33 kg m-3, 1156.2 kg m-3 respectively. The frictional properties such as angle of repose, co-efficient of internal and external friction are 24.30 degrees, 1.23 and 0.45 degrees respectively. In developing the millet planter, these measured engineering parameters were taken into account.