Design and Development of Automatic Vertical Flow Pulse Thresher Suitable for Different Pulses

Abstract

Semi-automatic and power operated vertical flow pulse thresher-cum-winnower was developed by the author 1 for efficient threshing and winnowing of matured crops of a variety of pulses having diverse physical characteristics, wherein threshing and winnowing operations were carried out separately. Therefore it was upgraded to a compact, hybrid and fully automatic pulse thresher-cum-winnower by the author 1 to overcome power constraints in villages as well as to obtain combined operations of threshing, crushing and winnowing together. Feeding of dry crop into thresher is manual, while rest of operations are automatic without human touch. Significant features are  >99% threshing and winnowing efficiency,  almost nil seed loss and seed breakage, crushing all crop residues into powdery animal fodder, dust free cleaning of seeds, and by 3 hp prime mover;  either oil engine with simplest clutch arrangement and/or with single phase electric motor. Threshing and crushing actions are executed by multiple progressive shears and impacts through a set of radial rotary beater and stationary beater inside a vertical hopper, like in semi-automatic pulse thresher. The crops flow vertically downwards into shear zones by scissoring actions of the beaters and gravity. Seeds are separated and cleaned by an improved winnower-cum-grader, and the crushed crop residues are disposed from the machine by a combined mechanism of walker and flat air jet. Configuration and performance of this fully automated vertical flow thresher for threshing of different types of pulses are presented and discussed.