Performance evaluation of a modified small axial flow multicrop thresher on soybean, black gram and rice
Loading...
Date
2013-08
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
Modernization of agriculture requires appropriate machinery for ensuring timely field operations, effective application of inputs, and reducing drudgery. Between the years 2007 and 2012, pulses production in India has increased from 14.3 to 17.09 MT while for 2013 production was17.58 MT. Rice is a major cereal crop as well as one of the most important food crops in India in terms of area, production and consumer preference. India is the second largest producer and consumer of rice in the world. Threshing is the process of loosening and separating grain from ear heads. It can be done by manual hand beating, animals treading or mechanical means. Manual threshing is slow, time consuming and laborious. Scarcity of labour and non-availability of small size machinery makes the job difficult in hills. Farmers in hilly region use conventional methods for threshing crops. Therefore, demand of multicrop small power thresher in hill region is high, which can significantly reduce the human drudgery. An axial flow thresher with multicrop potential was modified for soybean, black gram and paddy in the Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar. It consists of main frame, threshing assembly, cleaning unit, power transmission unit, feeding chute and aspirator. Engineering properties of soybean, black gram and rice related to thresher design were determined. The modified thresher was evaluated for its performance under different treatments at four cylinder speeds of 320 rpm (6.19 m/s), 370 rpm (7.16 m/s), 420 rpm (8.13 m/s) and 470 rpm (9.09 m/s) and three cylinder-concave clearances of 10, 15, and 20 mm for soybean crop. Similarly for black gram, three cylinder speeds 300 rpm (5.80 m/s), 370 rpm (7.16 m/s) and 440 rpm (8.52 m/s) and three concave clearances of 12, 15 and 18 mm were used while three cylinder speeds of 370 rpm (7.16 m/s), 470 rpm (9.09 m/s) and 570 rpm (11.04 m/s) and at four concave clearances of 15, 20, 25, and 30 mm were selected for testing paddy. Performance results showed that maximum threshing efficiency observed for soybean, black gram and paddy was 99.81, 99.87 and 99.51% at cylinder speeds of 470 rpm (9.09 m/s), 440 rpm (8.52 m/s) and 570 rpm (11.04 m/s) with 10, 15 and 16 mm concave clearances, respectively. The cleaning efficiency were found maximum of 99.31, 98.69 and 99.35 % at cylinder speeds of 470 rpm (9.09 m/s), 370 rpm (7.16 m/s) and 370 rpm (7.16 m/s), respectively with 10, 15 and 25 mm concave clearances in soybean, black gram and paddy crops. The minimum total loss was for soybean, black gram and paddy were 1.79, 4.24 and 4.19 % at cylinder speeds of 370 rpm (7.16 m/s), 300 rpm (5.8 m/s) and 370 rpm (7.16 m/s) with 20, 18 and 30 mm concave clearances, respectively. The least visible grain damage reported at cylinder speeds of 320 rpm (6.19 m/s), 300 rpm (5.8 m/s) and 370 rpm (7.16 m/s), respectively with concave clearances of 20, 18 and 30 mm in respective crops. The maximum germination percentage observed for soybean, black gram and paddy was 97.10, 90.00 and 98.66 % at cylinder speeds of 320 rpm (6.19 m/s), 300 rpm (5.8 m/s) and 370 rpm (7.16 m/s), respectively with 20, 18 and 30 mm concave clearances.
Description
Keywords
null