Performance Evaluation of a Maize Cob Thresher

摘要

cqvip:Threshing is one of the most critical parts of post-harvest operation which affects the quality and quantity of maize production.It could be done manually or mechanically.However,the objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of a maize cob thresher fabricated at National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization(NCAM)Ilorin at three different moisture contents and analyze the result using ANOVA and bar chart as statistical tools.The average values of parameters evaluated at three different stages of moisture content(15.81%,16.79%and 17.10%)of maize cob are as follow:threshing capacity 754.20,737.38 and 720.23 kg/h;threshing efficiency 99.73%,99.63%and 99.16%;cleaning efficiency 89.82%,89.45%and 88.34%;broken grains ratio 0.84%,0.79%and 0.70%;time taken 43,44 and 45 s,respectively.The total amount of maize cob fed into the machine was 9 kg in three replicates for each of the moisture content and the average values of threshed maize of 8.08,8.05 and 7.95 kg was recovered,respectively.There was significant difference in threshing efficiency,amount of chaffs in the threshed maize and the percentage broken ration.At 17.10%moisture content,the percentage broken grain ratio was minimal.At high moisture content,more force,energy and time is required to thresh certain amount of maize cob.Also,at minimal moisture content less force and energy is required for maximum output.Therefore,considering the previous work on performance evaluation of maize cob thresher,this machine performed satisfactorily and is far better than manual method.The machine is effective,efficient,affordable and available for the small and medium scale farmers in Nigeria.