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Keywords
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Billet Planter, Metering Unit, Overlap, Planting Uniformity, Sugarcane
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Abstract
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Metering device is the most important part of any planter that is responsible for precise counting and uniform distributing the seeds or billets over ground surface. In this research a new metering unit was designed and fabricated for sugarcane billet planter. The prototype is mainly consisted of an endless chain conveyor with some holding cupboard for conveying the billets to the surface of the planting furrows. An effective and efficient design of this chain conveyor system enables it the precise timing for the billet to be planted with desirable overlap. As result, a more uniform crop coverage can be achieved after sprouting. Using a laboratory test rig, the effects of planting speed, cane variety and angle of chain structure on filling percentage of the cupboards, overlapping and under overlapping of the planted billets were evaluated. A factorial experiment in a completely randomized design was used for the tests. According to the results, the best performance of the design metering unit is found to be at planting speed of 3.5 km h-1 and 20ยบ angle for conveyor chain.
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