FABRICATION OF SEED BALL ROLLING MACHINE

P V Arunraj1, G S Praveen2, D Vignesh3, V S Vijay Mohan4, R V Mukil5

1
Assistant Professor, 2,3,4,5 Students
SRM Institute of science and Technology, Ramapuram Campus, Chennai-600089.
ABSTRACT – The primary source of food is agriculture. Additionally, this industry contributes
to the country's economic stability and creates jobs. It is important to maintain a steady supply of
food as the population grows. In order to do this, agricultural activities might be mechanized.
Making and planting seed balls is one way to quickly and cheaply restore the earth's lost green
cover for ecological restoration. However, manual seed ball manufacture and distribution are more
time demanding and more expensive. Because of this, the goal is to develop a machine that can
produce vast amounts of seed balls quickly and easily.

Keywords: seed, sowing, planting, agriculture

1. Introduction

It's a pre-planted seed in a little spherical lump
of earth components, mostly clay and compost
with other essential nutrients, then dried. The
seed-ball is a small soil pocket which includes
the seed and all other required components for
the seed’s life in the same pocket. With enough
time and conditions, this allows the seed to
germinate and then grow. Each seed is pre-
planted and is normally seeded by dropping the
seed ball anyplace the plant species is
acceptable. This protects the seed from birds
and other predators until germination. They
give a vast window of time throughout the
sowing phase, making them a simple and
sustainable technique of plant growth. An easy-
to-transport and-plant seed ball Seed balls or
seed bombs are seeds dried in soil. The soil is
usually a combination of clay and compost. The
seed is therefore pre-planted and may be placed
anyplace the species can thrive. The wrapping
substance protects the seed until it germinates.
Seed balls are one of the simplest and most
sustainable methods to grow plants and extend
the period between planting and harvesting.
Seed balls are ideal for guerilla gardeners and
individuals with aching backs. With seed balls,
you may grow plants and trees from seeds
without disturbing the earth with a plough. A
Japanese farmer rediscovered and marketed seed
balls. Research backgroundss
Aerial reforestation dates back to the 1930s.
Due to inadequate seed dispersion, these studies
were mainly unsuccessful, since seeds failed to
generate enough kinetic energy to penetrate the
soil and were grossly predated. This led to a
rodent epidemic in Hawaii. Lynn Garrison
suggested in 1987 a Haitian Aerial
Reforestation Project (HARP) that would use
adapted aero planes to distribute tonnes of seed.
The seeds would be encased in a sorbent. This
covering would contain fertilizer, pesticide, and
maybe vegetable seeds. Haiti has a bimodal
rainy season, with precipitation in spring and
autumn. Maybe they were wet days before
the drop to initiate germination. The
plan fizzled. In 2016, seed balls were utilized in
aerial sowing in Kenya to boost yields. Using
seed balls instead of seeds for aerial
regeneration in Kenya appears to be working
well. In the late 1990s, saplings were expected
to replace seeds. They would be enclosed in
biodegradable canisters that would act as
missiles, piercing the earth at tremendous
speeds. This would certainly outperform basic
aerial seeding or even seed bombardment in
terms of yield.
Aerial Reforestation Inc. of Newton,
Massachusetts, launched this initiative in
1999, based on a pilot's suggestion. The
business planned to utilize a C-130
military cargo plane to deploy explosives on Figure 2: Flat tray method
battlefields. In 2019, the firm seems to be
closed. Other researchers are still working on
optimizing the aerodynamics of these "aerial
sapling darts" to increase soil penetration and
thereby reforestation yields. More study is
required to compare them to other reforestation
techniques. Drone Seed, a new firm in 2019,
just attempted seed bombing. They claim to
have developed a patented seed bomb that may
keep animals from eating the seeds while also
increasing the planting output. Given this
company's concentration on disaster assistance,
sapling darts were deemed ineffective since
"nursery suppliers lack capability to reforest
after large wildfires — particularly recurring
fires."

2. Existing Methods

 BY HAND: Rolling each balls and other

ingredients by hand and its formed into
several shapes and size of the balls may
differ and proper seed and sand is not
rolled while doing in hands

Figure 1: Hand method

BY USING FLAT TRAY: Combining all dry

ingredients in a tray and thoroughly mixing. By
shaking front and back and bottom of tray is
fixed so the forming balls can roll around and
formed into seed balls.
3. Problem statement

Rolling each balls and other ingredients by

hand has been a major limitation in the
production of seed balls. Further, using hands
for producing seed balls results into several
shapes and size of the balls may differ, seed
and sand is not rolled properly. Moreover it is
time consuming.

The primary aim of this project is to provide a

speedy solution to get accurate shaped and
sized seed balls without consuming too much
time. To overcome this limitation, this project
uses motor with rolling drum along with shaft
and pulley to get a machine in place of hand to
do the job quickly and accurately.

4. Proposed methodology

This machine is relatively cheap. This seed

ball machine is so easy to use that even a
novice farmer can use it. We reduced the cost
and made it accessible to all rural farmers. To
make this design, we used the motor's belt
drive to spin the drum, which contained the
seed, for 10-15 minutes.

Figure 3: Proposed design for seed ball

rolling machine
5. Machine to roll seed balls ‘V’ rope pulley: A basic single ‘A groove
manufactured of MILD STEEL. The motor
Following image displays the whole drawing of
rotates the spindle through a pulley and ‘V'
the sowing machine. Both physical and rope. This pulley's diameter runs the spindle
functional needs are addressed while
rpm.
constructing the mechanism. So the machine
can place the seeds properly. These are the main
components of this machine.

1. Main body
2. Spindle shaft or main shaft
3. ‘V’ rope pulley
4. Motor
5. Large pulley
6. Rolling drum
Motor: It drives the main shaft at the tilting
Main Body: This is made of MILD STEEL
plate's end. On the motor's free end is a big
material. Top bars and Bottom bars are
pulley around which the belt passes.
connected by the four bars by welding. The
Unleash the might of your electric motor. It
bearing open bores are done in one setting to
works by placing a current-carrying conductor
align the bearings properly during assembly.
in a magnetic field, which causes a magnetic
Provisions are provided to coat the bearings
force in the direction of Fleming's left hand rule.
with grease. On the top plate are four slots as
When a motor works, it produces torque. This
shown in the figure. Two Numbers of slots are
torque may rotate mechanically. DC motors are
machined as in the drawing on the bottom plate.
categorized like generators as shunt wound,
These slots are used to fix the motor on this
series wound, or compound wound.
main body.

Large Pulley: This pulley is connected from

Spindle shaft or main shaft: Spindle is made the smaller pulley whose rotation is from the
of motor. larger pulley reduces the speed of the
E N steel. It's machined to the drawing. The belt motor and in turn rotates the drum slowly for
pulley is machined into one end, while the other even mixing of different mixtures to produce
threads the wheel onto the spindle. The bearing seed balls.
is machined into the middle. The main body
holds the spindle with bearings. During the
operation, the belt pulley will revolve this
spindle. To prevent run out, the whole spindle is
rotated.
Rolling Drum: The drum will be connected on Figure 4: Working model of seed ball rolling
the top of the frame. The drum rotates with the machine
help of pulley and the drum is connected with
belt. The belt is connected from the wheel
which is welded at the bottom.

7. Working of the machine

The seed ball rolling machine's operation is as
follows: The wheels travel ahead as the farmer
pushes on the seed sowing machine's handle.
The wheels start rotating at a certain speed.
Wheels are attached on a metallic rod that
revolves with them. The pulleys on the metallic
rod communicate the wheel's rotation to the cam
and follower shafts. The belt drive smooths the
wheel action to the pulleys. Pulleys are used to
transmit motion along parallel axes. Because
these pulleys are parallel. The purpose of the
pulley is to convey motion in similar plane with
similar speed. The diaphragm strip controls the
seed rate by opening and closing the hopper
outlets. This mechanism makes the diaphragm
repeat a stroke. The seeds are kept in the
hopper.
8. Advantages of machine:

Following are the advantages of seed ball

machine are

• Low cost.
• Easy construction.
• Easy to operate.
• Fast and accurate.
• Useful for any seed

9. Conclusion:

This project work has given us a great chance

to use our limited expertise. During this
project, we learned a lot about planning,
buying, assembly, and machining. We believe
that project work is a wonderful way to
connect institutions and industry. We are
happy of our achievement in completing the
task in a short period.

The “FABRICATION OF SEED BALL

MACHINE” system is operating well. We
understand the challenges of sustaining
excellence. We have used available facilities
to the best of our abilities. So we created a
“SEED BALL MACHINE” that helps make
seeds. Using further approaches, they may be
tailored to specific uses.

10. Future scope:

The proposed machine tool provides a flexible

method for producing any type of seed ball.
With the use of industrial grade motors,
pullies fitted with bearings and provided with
AC power supply, the system can be made
efficient and practical. The pullies can be
equipped with motors for easy and quick
mechanism with the world moving towards
automation, the machine tool can also be
automated for reduced lead time and better
product quality and accuracy. So we can
increase the machine's value. Using an electric
motor, the machine may be made automated,
speeding up the seed planting process. We will
use level sensors for monitoring seed levels.
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