Israel
May 6, 2013
Source: DATA Technologies Ltd.
Thousand Seed Weight is a commonly used parameter to approximate the average weight to thousand seeds for QA tests and seed packaging, in cases where packaging by seed count is not in place.
Seeds, being biological objects vary by size and weight. Accordingly a TSW calculated based on a small sample size will be less representative of the overall batch from which it was sampled compared with a TSW calculated based on a much larger sample size.
When counting commercial seeds by weight through the use of Thousand Seed Weight, companies acknowledge the limitations of the TSW as representative figure, and therefore add several percentages on the target weight just to make sure they do not under deliver the stated seed number.
DATA Detection Technologies develops and produces high tech counting solutions offering unprecedented accuracy and speed. When using DATA Count machines the TSW could be calculated based on a very large sample size, ten times or more than before, very fast and very accurately.
TSW calculated using DATA Count machines therefore better represents the properties of the batch form which it was sampled. Accordingly when using such TSW companies do not have to add several percentages of ‘safety margin’ on the target weight but reduce this margin significantly.
The higher the initial safety margin a company used to overfill prior to using the DATA Count based TSW, the higher will be the saving in the overfilled seeds to this company. Such saving is often around 5%.
Using DATA Count machines to calculate TSW for QA
Given the unprecedented speed and accuracy of the DATA Count machines, TSW can now be calculated more frequently without need for additional resources, enabling tight QA monitoring through more frequent TSW checks.
Increasing accuracy and minimizing human errors
Further to reducing the sampling error DATA targets to reduce the room for human errors in the process of calculating TSW. DATA Count QA machines integrate scales with DATA seed counter to automatically calculate, present and store the TSW. The calculated TSW could be stored on the DATA PC or on any other computer in .xls or .csv forms. The unit can also integrate with a barcode scanner.