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Dust drift reduction effect of an air conveyor kit (dual‐pipe deflector) mounted on different maize pneumatic drills
Author(s) -
Manzone Marco,
Balsari Paolo,
Marucco Paolo,
Tamag Mario
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
pest management science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.296
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1526-4998
pISSN - 1526-498X
DOI - 10.1002/ps.4302
Subject(s) - seeder , drill , seeding , compressed air , cartridge , environmental science , mechanical engineering , automotive engineering , engineering , marine engineering , simulation , aerospace engineering
BACKGROUND All maize drills produce a fine dust due to the seed coating abrasions that occur inside the seeding element. The air stream generated by the fan of pneumatic drills – necessary to create a depression in the sowing element of the machine and to guarantee correct seed deposition – can blow away the solid particles detached from the seeds. In order to reduce this phenomenon, a coated maize seeds company (Syngenta®) has set up an ad hoc dual‐pipe deflector kit that easily fits different pneumatic drills (also old drills). In this study, the efficiency of this kit and the influence of different drill types on the kit's performance in reducing environmental pollution were evaluated using three different pneumatic seed drill models. RESULTS The research showed that a dual‐pipe deflector installed on a drill in standard configuration did not change the seeder performance, and by using this kit on pneumatic drills, irrespective of their design, it is possible to reduce by up to 69% the amount of dust drift in comparison with the conventional machine set‐up. CONCLUSION The dual‐pipe deflector, under the conditions employed in the present experiments, showed good performance with all types of maize pneumatic drill used. Irrespective of the seeder model on which it is mounted, it is able to obtain similar results, indicating its high operational versatility. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry