In order to eliminate some problems of traditional and mechanical methods of separating sunflower seeds from the receptacles, a new method based on impingement jets was innovated. The effect of the seeds' location, reservoir pressure, nozzle diameter, and the distance between the two nozzles on the separating area of sunflower receptacle, in three different states including, static, linear movement of sunflower receptacle, and rotational movement of nozzles were examined. Also theoretical areas of covered region by the two nozzles in the three different states were calculated. The regions separated by impingement of the air-jet were photographed and the area of the separated regions was calculated based on image processing technique. Also, for the three states, power consumption of compressor was calculated. Moreover, in each state, response surface methodology was used to find the five best optimized points. In the static state, maximum and minimum values of area of separated regions in the central, middle, and side region of sunflower receptacle were equal to 2.63 and 1.39, 3.83 and 1.96, and 4.02 and 2.12 cm2, respectively. In the linear movement state, maximum and minimum values of area of separated regions in the central, middle, and side region of sunflower receptacle were equal to 9.78 and 5.72, 16.19 and 10.02, and 17.43 and 11.15 cm2, respectively. The corresponding values for rotational movement state were 9.33 and 5.14, 128.98 and 86.12, and 241.89 and 157.65 cm2, respectively. Obtained results by variance analyzing showed that in all three states and in each region, effects of independent input factors were significant at probability level of 1%. Also in all tests, no seed was observed to be damaged due to air-jet impinging.
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