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Improvement of Existing BARI Maize Sheller for Shelling Unhusked Maize Cobs

N JAHAN
FMPE, BARI

M A GULANDAZ
FMPE, BARI

M A HOSSAIN
FMPE, BARI

M N AMIN
FMPE, BARI

M A HOQUE
FMPE, BARI

M S HASSAN
FMPE, BARI

M AMIRUZZAMAN
CSO
PLANT BREEDING DIVISION

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Hand peeling of maize was common practice before shelling which was laborious and time consuming. An improved BARI maize sheller was designed and fabricated in Farm Machinery and Post harvest Process Engineering Divisional workshop, BARI, Gazipur during 2014-15 so that both peeling and shelling can be done in the same machine. This machine has two parts in which peeling were done in upper part and husked cobs were delivered to lower part for shelling. Two rubber and two spiral rollers were used for peeling of cobs. The peeling capacities of the manual and power peelings were 83.63 and 330 kg/h respectively. The moisture content of the maize cobs with skin was 19% and without skin was 18.32%. The average engine and machine speed were 1247 and 360 rpm respectively. A little portion of maize cobs was shelled during peeling operation. This problem will be eliminated by reducing and adjusting gaps between the spiral and rubber rollers and peeling operation with different moisture content of maize cobs will be done in the next year.

Keywords: Maize sheller, Maize, cob

Location: Farm Machinery and Postharvest Process Engineering Division, BARI, Gazipur

Start Date: 00-00-2014

End Date: 00-00-2015

Program Area: Farm Mechanization

Commodity: Sheller

Objectives:

(a) Modification of BARI maize sheller for shelling unhusked maize cobs

(b) Test the performance of modified maize sheller

Methodology:

There were two different parts of BARI maize sheller machine. The upper part was called peeler while the lower were sheller. A roller type maize peeling part of the machine was designed and its fabrication work was going on at the workshop of the Farm Machinery and Post harvest Process Engineering Division of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Gazipur during 2014-2015. It was made of locally available materials. The materials used for the fabrication of different parts of the machine were MS roller, MS rod, MS angle, MS flat bar, MS sheet, MS shaft, rubber sheet, ball bearing, pulley, v-belt and other small items. Peeling part of the machine was designed in Auto CAD 2012,

The functions of these parts were described briefly as follows:

Power source: Motor or engine was used as the source of power.
Hopper: Feeding hopper is placed at the top of the machine and provides maize cobs into the rotating roller portion. The capacity of hopper is around 4kg.
Rubber and spiral rollers: Four rollers were used for peeling purpose. The relative rotation of the two pair of rollers were clamped the bracts and torn the maize cobs. Spiral roller can help push the corncobs to the machine outlet.
Bearing: Eight bearing were attached at both ends of four rollers to ease of revolving section.
Pulley: Two V-grooved pulleys were used for power transmission as well as rpm reduction. Because the rpm of the motor was about 1400 whereas the required rpm of the shaft will be 350-380.

. 6. V-belt: One B section V-belt is used for power transmission

Maize peeler was mainly made up with two spiral and two rubber rollers, which can effectively remove the skin of corns. The outer surface of rubber roller was uneven and rough. There were number of corrugated teeth between the gap of every two spiral rod of metal roller. The top of these corrugated teeth was slightly higher than the surface of spiral. This design improves the grasping ability of metal roller. In operation, the maize cobs will get into the working space through hopper. As tooth end was higher than the outer surface of the rollers, in the peeling process, first of all, peeling tooth tore ear bract. Then, the relative rotation of the two pair of rollers were clamped the bracts. The two rollers used rotating force to pull the bracts. A metal rod was spirally welded around the metal roller. The design of spiral roller pushes the maize cobs to the machine outlet and delivered into shelling part. Connected to the motor by pulley and V-belt, the driving shaft can be reached at a speed of 350-380 rpm.

Source of Information: Annual Research Report, FMPE, BARI--2014-15

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Working performance of the peeling part of this machine was greatly depends on roller materials. As rubber was elastic, the friction coefficient of rubber was big than the metal, so the grasping force and the capacity of tearing husk of maize cobs increase for using rubber roller and the seed broken rate was also low. There was a highest difference between the two pair of rollers. Each pair of rollers was in one high and one low-layout. So the weight of maize cobs have to face a different pressure of the two peeling rollers. In this experiment, the performance was not tested well because its fabrication was not fully completed. Only laboratory test was performed with preserved sample. Peeling capacity depends on peeling roller’s structure parameters, movement parameters, moisture of maize cobs, feeding rate etc. The moisture content of the maize cobs with skin was 19%. The average capacity of the manual and power peeler was 83.63 and 330 kg/h respectively. Fabrication of feeding hopper of this machine was not yet completed. So single feeding of maize cobs was delivered to the peeling part of the machine which reduced the peeling capacity. It was observed that no grain is injured during peeling operation. The average engine and machine speed were 1247 and 360 rpm respectively. A little portion of maize cobs was shelled during operation. This problem will be eliminated by reducing and adjusting gaps between the spiral and rubber rollers in the next year. The peeling capacity of the manual and power peeler was 83.63 and 330 kg/h respectively. It reveals that the capacity of power peeler is 4 times more than that of the manual peeling. So use of the machine can save time and labour dependency. Fabrication of feeding hopper of this machine was not yet completed. So single feeding of maize cobs reduced peeling capacity. During feeding, moisture content of maize cobs was 19%. But the peeling operation was not done with different moisture content of maize cobs. It was observed that the gaps were more between the spiral and rubber rollers. So little portion of maize cobs was shelled during peeling operation. This experiment will be continued in the next year to solve these entire problems.

Knowledge Management: Report/Proceedings