Design, Fabrication, and Testing of Motor Operated Multi-Grain Cleaning Machine

Abstract

Post Harvesting For Cereal Grains Following A Chain Of Activities Which Starting From Farmer Fields Leading Eventually To Cereal Being Supplied To The Consumer As They Prefer. As The Above Mentioned Unit Of Operation Cleaning Is One Of The Most Important Processes To Separate The Material Other Than Grain Which Reduces The Value Of The Crop. Even Though, In Ethiopia Farmers Use The Traditional Way Of Cleaning System Which Causes Too Much Physical Drudgery; Time Consumption; And Also Labor-Intensive. Furthermore, There Is Grain Loss During Cleaning, And Also During Storing The Uncleaned Grain Cause The Increase Of Mold And Insects. To Alleviate The Aforementioned Problem, An Electric Motor-Operated Multi-Grain Cleaning Machine Was Designed, Fabricated, And Tested. Therefore, The Study Was Conducted At Marc.The Cleaning Machine Component Was Designed And Fabricate By Using Different Methods; ItConsisted Of Mainframe, Sieve Frame, Fan, Sieve, Brush, Outlets, Motor, Hopper, And Power Transmission Units. The Physical And Mechanical Properties Were Determined To The Selected Crops With Three Different Varieties Including Wheat With Dandaia, Kingbird, And Lemu; Maize With Melkassa 2, Melkassa 4, And Mh ?�? 104; And Sorghum With Melkame, Tillahune, And Dagim. The Performance Evaluation Was Carried Out At Three Levels Of Feed Rate (10, 12, 15kg), Sieve Angle (2, 4, 6 ), And Air Velocity (3, 2.1, And 1.3m/Sec) To Determine The Optimum Combination Of The Factor. Therefore, The Experimental Design Laid Was Factorial, In A Split ?�?Split-Plot Design With Three Replication. The Cleaning And Separation Efficiency Of The Machine For Wheat, Maize, And Sorghum Was Determined From The Tested Results. Hence, The Result Indicates That The Cleaning Efficiency Was Increased With Decreasing In The Value Of Feed Rate, Sieve Angle, And Air Velocity. Although, The Separation Efficiency Of The Machine Increase With Decreasing Of The Feed Rate But It Decreases With The Decrease Of Sieve Angle And Air Velocity. The Maximum Separation Efficiency Of 100% Found For The Wheat Crop Was At Sieve Angle 2 And 4 , Air Velocity 3m/Sec And Feed Rate10kg; For Maize Crop, 97% Was Found At Sieve Angle 4 , Feed Rate 10 And 12kg, Air Velocity 3m/Sec; And Also For Sorghum 100% Estimated From Sieve Angle 2 , Feed Rate 10kg, And Air Velocity 3m/Sec. Accordingly, It Can Be Concluded That The Performance Of The Prototype Machine Is Very Much Acceptable With A High Prospect For Extending The Technology For All Types Of Farmers.