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Theses

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1996 - 199922010 - 20161
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Subject: Farm, Machinery and Power × Author: KAU × Start date: 1996 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Tech ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Development and performance evaluation of a black pepper skinner
    (Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1996) Anandabose, D; KAU; Jippu Jacob
    A power operated black pepper skinner was developed, tested and its performance evaluated. The major parts were two cylinder – concave assemblies, a hopper, a feed roll, an inclined belt separator assembly and a variable speed electric motor with a speed reduction unit of 10:1 ratio. The decortications took place as a result of the compressive and the shearing forces acting upon the pepper berries fed between the rotating drum and the stationary concave. A 3 – factor, Factorial Experiment in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with feed rate, drum speed and surface condition as factors was adopted. The maximum overall decorticating efficiency was observed at the feed rate of 12 kg/h and drum speed of 20 rpm for both the surface types. The maximum decorticating efficiency observed for coir-mat was 91.5 and that observed for rubber surface was 94.2. The effectiveness of wholeness of kernels was found to show lower values for the highest speed of 25 rpm due to the crushing of berries. The maximum overall decorticating efficiency recorded for coir – mat was 87.7 per cent and that recorded for rubber sheet was 90.3 per cent. The study showed that the parameters of feed rate, drum speed, and surface type, have significant influenz on decorticating efficiency, effectiveness of wholeness of kernals and overall decorticating efficiency.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Modification and testing of KAU Arecanut De-husker
    (Department of Farm Power Machinery and Energy, Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur, 1996) Rajmohan, C K; KAU; Jippu, Jacob
    An arecanut dehusker consisting of mainly a pair of fluted rollers, a pressure roller assembly, a scrapper assembly, a guide chute and a feed tray was developed in this study. The arecanut was fed between the two counter- rotating fluted rollers and was pressed against these rollers by the pressure roller. The fluted rollers gripped the husk and pulled it to the rear side of the rollers. In the process the husk was ripped open and the kernel was ejected from its shell. The performance of the machine was studied at speeds of 60, 90,120,150 and 180 rpm and with three different surface characteristics of the rollers. The surface characteristics of the rollers were varied by having different number of teeth and pitch. From the studies the optimum setup of the machine for deriving maximum dehusking efficiency and minimum damage to the dehusked kernels and unhusked fruits was obtained. This was at a speed of 150 rpm against the roller surface having 30 teeth with pitch 3.9mm, width 2.0mm, and depth 1.0 mm. At this set-up the dehusking efficiency, percentage of the number of dehusked kernals and unhusked fruits damaged were 94.4, 5.5 and zero percent respectively. And also this set-up yielded an output of 23 kg of arecanut kernals per hour.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Investigations on the adaptability of wireless sensor networks (WSN) based technology for harvesting crops
    (College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Kelappaji, 2016) Ayisha, Mangat; KAU; Shivaji, K P
    Harvesting has been identified as one of the critical and resource consuming operation because of several reasons especially inside polyhouse structures. Knowledge of physical properties of crops and fruits like cucumber plays an important role in the design and optimization of its machinery. Evaluation of these properties like plant height, leaf numbers, leaf length, leaf width, fruit length and width were taken for observation. It was seen that, these properties had a direct impact on deciding the components of the harvester. Plant height determined the height of the harvester; leaf parameters decided the obstacle parameters in the work space. Fruit holding capacity of the cutting unit was depended on fruit parameters. By analyzing all these data and the past work in the field of robotics, a preliminary model of a harvester was fabricated. Out of the harvesters developed so far in the field of agriculture, the most simple and economical method was selected for this study. The principle of linear actuators was adapted for the design of the harvester by incorporating screw rods and DC motors. The basic components for the harvester were identified with three Degrees of Freedom. The moving unit with wheels contributes to the motion in X direction. The vertical screw thread makes the movement in Y direction and the horizontal unit gives the motion in Z direction. By studying the biometric properties of plants and crops, the height of the harvester was confined to 2 m, width of horizontal unit as 45 cm and the base platform with 45X45 cm. A control board was used for controlling the motors which causes motion for the threaded rods. Accordingly, a laboratory model was fabricated and its functionality was tested. It was found working successfully in the laboratory conditions. The current trend in high-tech agriculture is towards switching from a manual system to automatic operations. Hence, the present study is a promising technology that can be converted to a fully automatic machine with future developments.