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Author: Ahuja, Manish × Start date: 2012 × Thesis Type: M.Tech ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Studies on axial flow paddy thresher equipped with modified mechanical feeding systems
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2016) Ahuja, Manish; Dogra, Baldev
    Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the oldest known crops to have been cultivated by human. India is one of the main rice producing and consuming countries of the world. The total production of rice in India during 2013-14 was 106.64 million tonnes of which the contribution from Punjab was 11.26 million tonnes (Anon 2014a). Low capacity and higher grain losses in conventional threshers led to the development of axial flow threshing mechanism (Khan 1986). Axial flow threshers developed by IRRI in 1970s have been widely tested, evaluated and modified by the state agricultural universities and local manufacturers in India and other Asian countries. The losses in existing threshers were up to 4.49% (Anon 2011) whereas acceptable loss level for threshing cereals is of 1% (Anon 2001). The capacity of wheat threshers increased multifold when equipped with belt feeding system. Therefore, a thresher with conveyor belt type mechanical feeding system was developed in the department. There were some limitations in this system. To improvise these limitations, threshers with improvised conveyor belt type mechanical feeding system and feeder chain type mechanical feeding system were developed. This study was conducted to evaluate performance of these threshers at the departmental farm during Nov-Dec, 2015. After preliminary testing of feeder chain type thresher, its performance evaluation was studied on PR-124 to ascertain the effect of cylinder speed (12.27, 14.44 and 16.61 m/s), conveyor speed (2.52, 2.96 and 3.4 m/s) and feed rate (4.08, 4.8 and 5.52 t/h). The threshing efficiency, non-collectable loss, broken grain, cleaning efficiency, sieve overflow and torque were 98.90%, 0.55%, 0.23%, 98.44%, 0.38% and 336.3 Nm respectively at the best combination of cylinder speed, feed rate and conveyor speed of 16.61 m/s, 5.52 t/h and 2.52 m/s respectively. Similarly, the performance of conveyor belt type thresher was studied to ascertain the effect of cylinder speed (12.01, 14.13 and 16.24 m/s), conveyor speed (2.71, 3.19 and 3.66 m/s) and feed rate (5.1, 6.0 and 6.9 t/h). The threshing efficiency, non-collectable loss, broken grain, cleaning efficiency, sieve overflow and torque was 99.08%, 0.52%, 0.34%, 97.96%, 0.40% and 354.8 Nm respectively at the best combination of cylinder speed, feed rate and conveyor speed of 16.24 m/s, 6.9 t/h and 2.71 m/s respectively.