## 1 Introduction  
**Corn, or maize (**_Zea mays_** L.), the name given by natives in Haiti, meaning \"that what sustains life\", is a plant from the group of cereals (fam. Gramineae), cultivated mainly for its seeds that are used in human food, animal feed, and in numerous industrial sectors (corn flour, glucose, dextrose, spirit, glues, starch, biscuits, flakes, edible oil, medicines, etc.) [1, 2, 3]. **  
**Corn is widely cultivated due to its special phytochemical and biological characteristics. It is a drought-resistant plant, affected by few diseases and pests, that can be cultivated on very different soils and in different climatic conditions; it supports monoculture, leaves the land clean of weeds, and is a good precursor for many plants, even for autumn wheat. It also makes very good use of organic and mineral fertilizers; reacts very strongly to irrigation; can be cultivated in successive crops either for seeds or for green fodder or silage; and has a very high reproduction coefficient due to its characteristics as a unisexual monoecious plant, allowing for the convenient obtaining of very productive hybrids. Corn seeds contain 10-12% protein substances, 68-70% non-nitrogen extractives, and 4.5% fat. Corn protein (zein) is low in lysine and tryptophan. Based on the Opaque 2 gene, however, hybrids rich in these two amino acids were created, making corn, in terms of nutritional value, a super cereal [4; 5; 6; 7]. In Europe, corn was introduced first in Spain after the first expedition made by [PERSON] at the end of the 15 th century from where it spread on the European continent and then further into Asia and Africa [2; 5]. Corn seeds (kernels) consist of three main parts (Figure 1), namely, the pericarp (or hull, representing the harder outer layer of the seed offering protection), the endosperm (the starchy part storing reserve nutrients), and the embryo (that develops into a new plant after sowing) [8; 9; 10]. Following the threshing process of corn cobs, a mixture is obtained consisting of corn seeds; chaff; dust; and seeds from other crops, including weeds, mechanical impurities, etc. [11]. The preparation of seeds for sowing or consumption in order to answer the increasingly demanding modern technologies includes a complex of operations aiming at removing all impurities and unvaluable seeds [12; 13; 14]. In the purpose of achieving large and good quality yields, an important role is that of assuring a seed pool from hybrids with the highest genetic characteristics that are adequate for each pedo-climatic area [15; 16; 17; 18]. The purpose of cleaning is to remove the impurities from the seed mass with the help of air currents, sieves, inclined planes, and cylinders. Through cleaning, inorganic impurities (dust, sand, stones) and organic impurities (plant residues, chaff, weed seeds, and broken seeds of the basic crop) are removed. It is a mandatory operation both for seeds intended for sowing (in which case, the purity must be very high) and for those for consumption, where seeds need to meet requirements that are even more strict. Seeds for consumption and industry must also be cleaned because impurities negatively influence further processing [19; 20; 21; 22; 23]. Sorting/calibration can be done separately or simultaneously with basic or additional cleaning. Sorted seeds (uniform in size) are sown with greater precision, germinate evenly, and produce more vigorous plants. Sorting is also of particular importance for seeds intended for industrial processing [24; 25; 22; 26; 21]. Taking into account these conditions, the cleaning and sorting operations must be performed on specific and high-performance equipment [27; 28; 29; 30]. During cleaning, the corn seeds are separated from the rest of the initial mixture, and during sorting/calibration, they are separated into fractions that differ from each other  
Figure 1: Corn seed view and structure. according to one of the following criteria: size, specific weight, shape, etc.