Objective To address the issues of tray jamming and poor stability in continuous tray feeding associated with existing tray-separating devices of rice nursery seeders during high-speed continuous operations, the spiral automatic tray-separating device was adopted as the research object, and investigations were carried out on the dynamic mechanisms of the tray separation process and the optimization of operating parameters. To address the issues of tray jamming and poor stability in continuous tray feeding associated with existing tray-splitting devices on seedling-raising seeders during high-speed continuous operation, this paper takes a spiral-type automatic tray-splitting device as the research object and conducts research on the dynamic mechanism of the tray-splitting process and the optimization of operating parameters.

Method A rigid-flexible coupling model was established in RecurDyn and experimentally validated. Combined with single-factor tests and three-factor three-level orthogonal tests, the effects of tray-separating speed, stacked tray number and seedling tray material on tray-separating performance were analyzed to reveal the corresponding variation laws, and the operating parameters were optimized.

Result Results showed that the rigid-flexible coupled model could reasonably accurately describe the flexible deformation behavior of seedling trays during contact with spiral blades and rotating trays. The variation laws of lateral deviation from simulation and experiment were basically consistent, with RMSE = 0.614 and R² = 0.809. The asymmetric contact force and velocity difference induced continuous vibration and lateral deviation of the seedling trays, which increased contact impact and resulted in jamming and breakage.

Conclusion The factors affecting the success rate, in order of significance, were separating speed, stacked tray number, and tray material. The optimal parameters were a separating speed of 1.2 s/tray, 6 stacked trays, and a tray mass of 750 g. Under these conditions, the maximum simulated lateral deviation and stress were 4.84 mm and 46.14 MPa, respectively, satisfying operational requirements. The experimental success rate reached 91.98%, enabling a stable capacity of 2000 trays/h. This study provides a valuable reference for optimizing high-speed continuous tray-separating mechanisms.