To design a new machine which removes the seeds of sunflowers based on air-jet impingement, picking force of five varieties of sunflower seeds was measured. Effects of the loading rate, sunflower head’s diameter, the location of the seeds on the head and the number of the days after harvesting on picking force of seeds were studied. The tests were conducted 1, 2, 3 and 4 days after harvesting. Also theoretical air-jet impingement forces for four levels of nozzle diameter, four levels of jet temperature and eight levels of pressure of reservoir to which the jet were calculated. With the increase of the sunflower heads’ diameter and the loading rate from 50 to 150 g min-1, the values of the picking force increased. With the increase of the distance between... |