Effect of Operational Parameters on Dehusking Cum–Shelling Efficiency and Broken Grain Percentage of Maize Dehusker–Cum–Sheller

Rudragouda Chilur; Sushilendra; Vijayakumar   Palled; M. Veeranouda; R.S. Yaranal; Sharangouda Hiregoudar; Mareppa; N.B.

Volume : III, Issue : VIII, August - 2014

Effect of Operational Parameters on Dehusking Cum–Shelling Efficiency and Broken Grain Percentage of Maize Dehusker–Cum–Sheller

Rudragouda Chilur, Sushilendra, Vijayakumar Palled, M. Veeranouda, R. S. Yaranal, Sharangouda Hiregoudar, Mareppa, N. B.

Abstract :

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important cereal crop in the global agricultural economy. In India, maize is grown across all the states and it is one of the important staple foods. The conventional method of dehusking and shelling operations are time consuming and involves drudgery and exposure of crop over a times to natural hazards and animals, birds and insects damage leading to losses in quantity and quality of grains. In order to overcome these problems, the maize dehusker cum sheller of 600 kg h-1 capacity suitable for marginal, small and medium size farming community was developed by considering engineering properties of maize. The length of axial flow sheller cylinder was designed as one meter along with 8 row beaters. The solid lugs were provided as threshing element. The blade type blower with converging casing section were developed to separate grains from non-grain material. The V-belt power transmission system was used with an electric motor as prime mover. The numerical optimization technique was fallowed to optimize the operational parameters viz., cylinder peripheral speed (4 levels), concave clearance (4 levels) and feed rate (3 levels). The 7.1 m s-1 of peripheral speed with 25 mm of concave clearance of cylinder at 600 kg h-1 feed rate was found to be optimum and which were having dehusking efficiency, shelling efficiency and oken grain percentage were achieved 98.88, 99.12 and 1.23 per cent, respectively