Studying of the Amount of Energy Required to Operate the Nursery Tray Planting Machine

Abstract

Abstract A study was conducted at the University of Baghdad-College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences - Department of Agricultural Machinery and Equipment for the agricultural season 2023 with the aim of designing, manufacturing and testing a machine used to planting agricultural nursery tray with different types of vegetable or horticultural seeds or forest seeds of various forms, and using different agricultural media where they are conducted The planting process is by pulling the seeds with a negative pressure vacuum system, and then they are feding to the dishes in their right place to complete the planting process. The study included three factors: The speed of the main belt in three levels: 0.43, 0.66 and 0.90 m.sec−1 and three types of agricultural media: Petmus, mix of Petmos and silt 1:1 and silt, and three types of seeds that were planted. A factorial experiment was carried out using a design (CRD) with three replications using the least significant difference and a probability level (LSD = 0.05) to compare the mean of the coefficients. Some performance indicators of the machine were studied, including: Consumed electrical power, electric power, the productivity of the machine, and the efficiency of the machine in picking seeds. The results indicated The peat moss medium excelled in recording the least consumed electric power, which amounted to 2075.8 watts, and the lowest electric power, which amounted to 0.007751 kWh. And the third speed of the conveyor belt excelled in achieving the highest productivity of dishes per hour, amounting to 105.08 dishes.hour−1, and the first speed achieved the least consumed power, amounting to 2047.3 watts, and the least consumed electrical energy at the third speed, which amounted to 0.007703 kWh.