Design and performance test of a test rig for grain flow sensor

In order to develop a grain flow sensor, a test rig was built. Three weighting sensors were mounted on the weighting bin in the test rig to calibrate grain flow sensor and verify the accuracy of grain flow sensor. A valve plate was inserted in the bottom of the feed bin. The feed flow could be controlled by adjusting opening of the valve plate. A weighting measurement model and a feed flow model were established respectively according to user manual and calibration experiments. Weighting accuracy and feed rate for the test rig was analyzed through experiments. Results showed that the maximum relative error of weighting was 1.12%, the minimum relative error was 0.36%, and the average relative error was 0.61%. The average relative error of feed flow ranging from 0.5 to 2.4 kg/s was less than 4%. The test rig developed is stable and reliable, and meets the requirements for development and testing of the grain flow sensor.