Design and performance evaluation of an air-and-oscillating screen cleaning system for Ruzi grass seed

This study investigated the operational performance of a Ruzi grass seed cleaning unit by evaluating the effects of seed feed rate and airflow rate. The experimental variables included three seed feed rates (100, 200, and 300 kg/h) and three airflow rates (0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 m³/s). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that cleaning capacity increased with the seed feed rate, reaching a maximum of 195.03 kg/h at 300 kg/h, whereas the airflow rate showed no significant effect on this parameter. Impurity-removal efficiency increased with airflow rate, reaching a maximum of 99.56% at a feed rate of 100 kg/h and an airflow rate of 0.4 m³/s. Conversely, seed loss percentage increased with airflow rate but decreased as the feed rate increased, with a minimum value of 0.30% observed at 300 kg/h and 0.2 m³/s. Both factors exerted a statistically significant influence on impurity removal efficiency and seed loss. Within the tested ranges, a feed rate of 300 kg/h and an airflow rate of 0.3 m³/s were selected as a compromise operating condition, providing a cleaning capacity of 188.92 kg/h, an impurity removal efficiency of 87.40% and a low seed loss of 1.04%.