Effects of Drum Speed, Feed Rate and Sieve Size on the Performance Parameters of an Acha Thresher

Abstract

The effects of threshing drum speed of an acha thresher at three levels of 450, 550 and 650 rpm; feed rate at three levels of 200, 400 and 600 g/min and sieve size at three levels 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 mm on the threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, separation efficiency, drum loss, separation loss and total loss were examined. Tests were arranged as a split-split plot fitted into completely randomized design with three replications. To compare the means, F-LSD test was used. The analysis of variance showed that drum speed significantly affected threshing efficiency, separation efficiency, separation loss and total loss but had no significant effect on the cleaning efficiency and drum loss at 5 % level of confidence. The feed rate of the thresher had significant effect on the cleaning efficiency but had insignificant effects on threshing efficiency, separation efficiency, drum loss, separation loss and total loss. The sieve size showed no significant effects on the threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, separation efficiency, drum loss, separation loss and total loss. The 450-rpm drum speed, 400 g/min feed rate and 2.0 mm sieve size had the best performance.