STUDY SOME FACTORS AFFECTING A MECHANICAL COATING OF MAIZE SEEDS

The aim of this research is to study some factors affecting the mechanical coating of maize seeds. The studied factors are coating temperature of 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 Cᵒ, coating speeds of 20, 28, and 36 rpm, coating times of 15, 20, 30, 40, 50. And 60 minute, batch masses of 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 kg, and coating materials of clay, “Fe + Zn” and “Fe + Zn + Arsan”. The main results in this study can be summarized in the following points: * The maximum germinations maize seeds were 89.5, 99.6 and 89.7 % for coating-unit speed of 28 rpm, coating time of 15 minute, coating temperature of 30 Cᵒ with their different coating treatments coating with “Fe + Zn”, “Fe + Zn + Arsan” and clay respectively. Meanwhile, the minimum maize seed germinations of 22.5, 37.8 and 14.7 % were obtain at coating-unit speed of 36 rpm, coating time of 60 minute, coating temperature of 70 Cᵒ and coating with the same coating mechanicals respectively. * The maximum machine capacity of maize seeds coated was 9.2 kg/h was obtained using seeds- batch mass of 2.5 kg and coating-unit speed of 36 rpm. Meanwhile, the minimum machine capacity of maize seeds coated was 0.85 kg/h using seeds-batch mass of 0.5 kg and coating-unit speed of 20 rpm. * The operation and production costs at optimum parameters batch mass of 2.5 kg, coating-unit speed 28 rpm, coating temperature of 30 ⁰C, coating time of 15 minutes and coating with “Fe + Zn + Arsan” were 17.02 L. E./h and 1850 L.E./ton.