RESEARCH RESULTS OF DESIGN PARAMETER INFLUENCE OF A TORSION-PIN SOWING MACHINE ON DOSING UNIFORMITY OF HARD-RUNNING SEEDS

The purpose of the study is to increase uniformity of sowing of difficult-to-flow seeds by substantiating the design parameters of the torsion-pin sowing machine. Sowing is crucial technological operation in ensuring high yields of agricultural crops. Concurrently, sowing of legumes is associated with certain difficulties due to increased requirements of these crops to the amount of moisture at initial stage of development. One of the most effective ways to eliminate moisture deficiency is pre-sowing soaking. However, the existing sowing machines are not capable of sowing soaked seed materials with high quality parameters. To solve the problem of sowing difficult-to-flow seeds of legumes, a torsion-pin sowing machine was developed. Laboratory studies of the developed sowing machine were carried out to assess the influence of its design parameters on uniformity of longitudinal distribution of seeds. The results of experimental studies on assessing the quality of seeding of hard-to-flow seeds of legumes with a torsion-pin sowing machine showed that uniformity of longitudinal distribution of seeds increased in case of installing movable pins. Under these circumstances, the highest uniformity of seed sowing, both of sweet clover and sainfoin, amounted respectively to 39...46% and 45...51%, of the variation coefficient in the mass of seeds in one-centimeter cells, the highest uniformity was obtained in case of equipping the sowing machine with four torsion-pin groups with three movable 15 mm high pins.