A PROCESS FOR DETERMINING THE SOUNDNESS OF SOWING SEEDS AND THEIR SOUNDNESS-DEPENDENT GERMINATIVE ABILITY, AND APPARATUS FOR CARRYING OUT THE PROCESS

摘要

A process for determining the soundness, and the soundness-dependent germinative ability of sowing seeds is based on detecting the characteristic difference between the acoustic excitation response functions of right and damaged seeds. The seeds are excited by an acoustic signal and by examining the response functions a comparison is performed to decide whether the seeds are right or damaged. Apparatus for carrying out the process includes a feed tank (1), a seed feeding mechanism, a sensing chamber (4) and a vibration sensor (5) for detecting acoustic signals within the chamber (4), the output of the vibration sensor (5) being connected to a signal processing unit (6).