Modification and Evaluation of Engine Driven Thresher for

Threshing Finger Millet

Abu Teffera
Bahir Dar Agricultural Mechanization and Food Science Research Center,
P.O. Box: 133, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
email abuteffera@yahoo.com

Abstract - The axial flow motorized mechanical maize Sheller was modified to thresh finger millet. This
Sheller has threshing, cleaning and grain discharge units. It was modified its threshing unit and hopper
in order to be suitable for threshing finger millet. Therefore, based on the nature of the grain two possible
variants of threshing drum bar arrangement was selected and used. The combination of spike tooth and
rasp bar arranged alternatively throughout the length with straw thrower at the end and both spike tooth
and rasp bar set within the raw in different lengths proportion, to attach spike tooth, rasp bar, and straw
thrower were the two variant used for test purpose. The box type hopper also changed to plain feed table.
Basic threshing unit parameters were calculated and determined. Then each variant of threshing unite
was tested separately using available test procedure. The first year test result indicates that the first
variant threshing unit was not able to remove the bran (thin layer) as required from the seed. But the
second one shows good threshing capability. During the test time, 117kg/hr, 4.7% and 0.773 litter/hr
threshing capacity, un-threshed grain and fuel consumption were recorded respectively. In the second
year excluding the cleaning (plain sieve and fan) unit the test was conducted using the second variant of
threshing unit. From the test results, 136kg/hr, 2.54% and 1.66 litter/hr threshing capacity, un-threshed
grain and fuel consumption were recorded respectively. The cleaning units were excluded from the system
because of poor efficiency seen during the first year test. In both cases percent of un threshed grain was
recorded from the grain out let only, from straw out let was not found. The test shows that threshing with
mechanical thresher results in timeliness of operation, reduce grain los, improve the storage quality and
hence market value.

Key words: finger mille, mechanical thresher, spike tooth, rasp bar

I. Introduction indicates that finger millet as one of the major crop

in the region, especially in west and east Gojjam
Millet is a collective term referring to a number of (information from BoA, 2005).
small-seeded annual grasses that are widely
Finger millet has outstanding properties as a
cultivated as grain crops in temperate, subtropical
subsistence food crop. The seeds are small, 1–2mm
and tropical regions. It is seventh most important
in diameter, has coated cover and the flour is used to
cereal grain in the world [1].The global millet
make several types of flat bread, (injera) and malted
production is annually estimated to be 28million in
to make local beer. The straw is used as animal feed
which developing countries, mainly in Asia and
and as building material, so that the whole crop is
Africa, are accounting for about 94 percent of the
utilized. The seeds also can be stored safely for
total product as food [2]. They are nutritionally
many years without insect damage. It is especially
equivalent or superior to most cereals; containing
valuable as it contains the amino acid methionine,
high levels of methionine, cystine, and other vital
which is lacking in the diet of hundreds of millions
amino acids for human health [3].
of the poor who live on starchy staples such as
In the Amhara region every year most farmers cassava, plantain, polished rice, or maize meal [4].
grow finger millet. Almost all millet is produced by
If a longitudinal section of a millet grain is
small farmers in which the majority of the produce
examined, three principal parts may be identified: i)
is mainly for household consumption and the
the pericarp (the external layer of the grain); ii) the
remaining is meant for marketing to earn cash.
endosperm (the farinaceous albumen, rich in starch)
Approximately 2,580,907quintal of finger millet
and iii) the germ (or embryo, development of which
was produced in the last year from the total
gives birth to the new plant). The pericarp, also
cultivated areas of 160,038.17 hectare. This
commonly called the "bran", consists mainly of
fiber and sometimes unpalatable compounds. Thin
pericarps have a tendency to adhere firmly to the
kernel, contrary to the thick pericarps and this
makes hulling difficult [2].
The rate of production for Finger millet each year
is becoming very high. On the other hand, there is
some limitation on proper threshing; the plant needs
four to five day’s continuous threshing action than
other cereal crops. Because of large amount of time
involved, there will be delay to complete threshing
operation within the safe time that result in quality
deterioration, insect and rodent attack, resulting in a
post harvest loss. Moreover, threshing output of
man is very low and dependent on the efficiency of
the animals and workers. Under these conditions the
improvement of human power and small scale
machines are of great importance as it is one of the
first steps that can be taken to raise crop yields and
the farm income.
Therefore, to fill this gap, modifying of suitable
mechanical thresher which improves the
productivity as compared to the traditional threshing
operation is required. Threshing with mechanical
system results in timeliness of operation, increases
yield by threshing at optimum condition or reduce
grain loss and improve the storage quality and hence
market value.
As the nature of the seed shows, the thin pericarps
have a tendency to adhere firmly to the kernel,
contrary to the thick pericarps and this makes
hulling difficult. Therefore, to remove the difficult
component of the seed part, drum and concave
combination should be selected properly. Same
research output shows that harvesting and threshing
of grain crops are two major farm operations
requiring considerable energy [4]. This energy
should be properly determined. During threshing
time the shaft of the rotating cylinder is powered to
perform threshing function. So that, sufficient power
required to provide the tangential force at drum edge
that comprises the force to impact, compress and
move the crop mass.[5]
It is well known that finger millets are mostly
grown as food item in Africa and Asia, there is
plenty of information on the agronomical
morphological and other aspects, but information
on existing mechanical threshers for finger millet
still not found as expected. However, there was
same attempt to solve the problems regarding
threshing not only finger millet but also for others
crops. The effort was originally addressed by the
rural technology promotion centers and other
governmental and none governmental organization.
These sectors were manufactured and imported
different type of multi crop threshers, like, non-
cleaning multi crop thresher, Alban blanch, wheat
and barley thresher standard multi crop thresher and
others which is assumed to be capable of threshing
of barley, wheat, finger millet and teff. But, most of
the above indicated threshers were not efficient as
requited to thresh finger millet. The grain loses was
reaches up to 15%. [6]. this shows that thresher’s
performance at field tests regarding grain loss was
very high. As a result, threshing of finger millet
with the existing traditional and mechanical
methods does not encourage high output and
increases grain loses.
Therefore, as the region is potential in finger
millet production and threshing is major problem,
proper finger millet thresher farmers have to be
provided. Thus, the paper immediate output was to
modify the existing engine driven maize Sheller
thresher unit to be suitable for threshing finger
millet. In general the overall objective of the study
is to support finger millet production through
introduction of knowledge and appropriate thresher
that minimizing grain loss, work load, and time.
II. Material and methods
 Selection of suitable thresher unit for threshing
finger millet
The axial flow motorized mechanical maize
Sheller was modified to thresh finger millet. The
reason for considering axial flow is because the thin
seed pericarps have a tendency to adhere firmly to
the kernel, contrary to the thick pericarps and this
makes hulling difficult, therefore, the axial flow
method will allow the finger millet crop/panicles
more resident time in the threshing cylinder than
cross flow. This will allow for more through
threshing. Threshing is accomplished by a rotating
cylinder and a concave grate in both conventional
and rotary threshers. As the cylinder rotates, crop is
forced through the gap between the concave and the
cylinder and is subjected to impact and rubbing
action that cause grains to be detached [7]. Then the
threshed grains fall through the concave on the sieve
while the straws are conveyed axially and discharge
out through straw outlet. In addition the
combination of air from the blower and sieve helps
to separate the grain from material other than grain.
Finally the grain is discharged through grain outlet.
Therefore, based on basic threshing principle of
crops, types of threshing cylinders and the nature of
finger millet grain two possible variants of cylinder
drum arrangement was designed and used. Fig. 1
and 2 shows the picture of the two selected
arrangement of cylinder drum.
1. The drum cylinder having both spike tooth and
rasp bar alternatively throughout the length with
straw thrower at the end
2. The combination of spike tooth and rasp bar
drum within the raw in different lengths
proportion, to attach spike tooth, rasp bar, and
straw thrower.
a) without cleaning unit b) with cleaning unit
Fig. 1 Modified thresher on the bases of existing maze Sheller
 Modifying and determination of threshing unit
parameters
The selected thresher for modification purpose
have frame, feeding unit, threshing unit, plain sieve,
and fan and grain discharge auger unit. But among
different units listed above more attention was given
to the threshing unite. It was modified box type
hopper to plain feeding table, flat rectangular bar
threshing drum to combined (rasp and spike tooth)
type (as described above), proper hole sizes for
concave and sieve selected. The power transmission
system for the thresher is belt and pulley drive for
its low cost and maintenance. Power from diesel
engine is transmitted to the pulley mounted on the
main shaft through double V-belts.
Excluding of cleaning (plain sieve and fan) unit,
the following parameters of the thresher were
determined and selected to suite for finger millet.
major drum parameters which include drum size,
drum speed and power required to rotate the drum
and system parameters which include shaft
diameter, key type, bearing type were determined
using appropriate formulas [8]. The results are
indicated in table 3 and 4. Finally, for both threshers
unit prepared necessary manufacturing drawing and
selected appropriate materials. Then threshing units
were manufactured in the center work shop.
The gross power that required to the drum which
goes only towards the production process and the
power required to overcome external resistances
during acceleration of the drum while idle is given
as: [8]
mv2 3
N= + Aω+ Bω (1)
1−f
Where:
M = is the portion of plant mass delivered per
sec
f = is friction coefficient (0.7- 0.8)
V = is the tangential speed of threshing drum in
m/s
A = ω1 is the resistance at the bearing of the
thresher drum, proportional to its angular
velocity.
B = ω3 is the resistance caused by the drum
imparting a velocity to the surrounding air,
proportional to the cube of the angular
velocity of the drum.
Considering other unpredictable power requiring
condition the 10kw was appropriate.
Belt and pulley drive are determined based on the
rating power from the prime mover and the required
numbers of rotations for thresher drum.
P (KW) =
(2)
T1
2.3 log ⁡{ }T2 .
=μθcosecβ (3)
Where:
P = Power (KW)
T1= tight side (N)
T2= slack side (N)
v = belt velocity (m/s)
m = belt mass per length (from standard
book as 0.0193kg/m)
f = coefficient of friction taken as 0.25
α = Wrap angle for smaller pulley
Maximum torque (twisting moment) acting on
drum shaft through driven pulley calculated by
formula:
T =( T 1−T 2) R
Where:
T = Twisting moment in N-m,
T1 = Tension in the tight side in Newton,
T2 = Tension in the slack side in Newton
R = radius of the pulley in meter
The stress corresponding to the diameter of the
shaft calculated using the formula:
)2+T 2
(Mmax. +
√(M max .
)=
* σb* d3
Where:
Mmax. - is maximum bending moment N-m
T - is twisting moment on the shaft N-m
σb - is the stress at critical point of the shaft
Bearing was selected based on its load carrying
capacity, life expectancy and reliability. Key is used
as temporary fastening and is subjected considerable
crushing and sheering stresses. There are different
types of keys, but the type of key used for this
arrangement was square key.
After measuring pre-test data, preliminary test
which helps for necessary adjustment and
observation was undertaken. This test helps for
proper Instillation and operation of threshing
(4) Machines. For 30-minute test time, three separate
sampling had been taken for each with equal
duration in order to use for performance calculation.
Fuel consumption were measured using graduated
cylinder cup, samples weight measured by sensitive
balance having 0.001 measuring accuracy and drum
rotation by mechanical tachometer having 40-
50,000rpm range
Both variant of threshing unit was tested at
different time. During the preliminary test and
observation time the first variant found not efficient
to remove the bran from the seed. Therefore, it was
found to shift to the second variant. According to
(5) test procedures full test was done and result is
evaluated based on hourly output and the amount of
un threshed finger millet.
In the 2013 year additionally the second variant
thresher is tested again with excluding cleaning
(plain sieve and fan) unit and also reduced the
number of bars from eight to six. The thresher was
tested using two finger millet varieties, degu and
Necho, but the result of degu Varity will be used for
evaluation purpose.
IV. Result and discussion

III. Evaluation of engineering parameter Table 1 pre-test parameters of local finger millet in
performance of thresher the year of 2012 and 2013

Research output indicate that the performance of Grain

Moisture feeding rate Straw
threshing mechanisms is measured by threshing N straw
content of of Materials, length
efficiency, separation efficiency, the amount of o ratio
grain, (%) (kg/hr) (cm)
grain damage and the amount of straw breakup.
Degu (local selection) (Acc# 215874) (2012)
These parameters are also affected by design factors
1 1:3.06 6 264 52
(cylinder diameter, concave length, numbers of
2 1:3.08 8 276 67
bars), operating parameters (cylinder speed,
3 1:4.29 8 270 70
cylinder-concave gap, material feed rate) and Crop
Degu (local selection) (Acc# 215874) (2013)
condition (moisture content, crop maturity and type)
[7] therefore, taking into consideration the 1 1: 2.2 8 343 67
parameters affecting the thresher performance, the 2 1:1.7 7 370 62
test was conducted using widely available finger 3 1: 1.9 7 253 68
millet in the region as test crop following the
standard test procedure of regional Network for Table 2 calculated parameters details of threshing
Agricultural Mechanization’s (RNAM). Pretest cylinder
activates were under taken according to the guide
line of the standard test procedure. Each parameter
that influences threshing of finger millet were
measured three times and taken the average value.
These parameters are indicated in table 1.
 Determined parameters Calculated values
All calculated thresher unit parameters were Diameter of threshing cylinder (m) 0.335
used during manufacturing time. The results were Length of threshing cylinder (m) 1.120
based on the types of crop parameters. Major Number of beater/bars (in number) 6
parameters are indicated on table 2 and 3. Cylinder-concave clearance (mm) 10 (fixed)
Cylinder velocity (m/s) 25
Using pre test data of table 1 preliminary tests
was conducted for the first variant of the threshing
unite. The result was not successful; it lacks to Table 4 test results for variant two threshers for the
remove the thin layer “bran” from the seed as year of 2012
required. But, in other hand, it was not seen un-
threshed grain from straw out let side and the size of
chopped straw was also found as pre farmer’s
interest. In the second year (2013) excluding the cleaning
(plain sieve and fan) unit the test was conducted
Table 3 calculated parameters details of power using the second variant of threshing unit. From
transmission the test results, 136kg/hr, 2.54% and 1.66 litter/hr
threshing capacity, un-threshed grain and fuel
Determined parameters Calculated values consumption were recorded respectively. The
Power required (kw/ HP) 10/13.4 cleaning unit was excluded from the system because
Small pulley diameter (m) 0.140 of poor cleaning efficiency fond during the first year
drum pulley diameter (m) 0.460 test. As the result on table 5 shows, this time the
Shaft diameter (mm) 35 output increases and the grain loss also decreases
Shaft key type Square key relatively to the previous year. This results obtained
Key size (LxWxH ) (mm) 30x8x8 by adjusting the clearance from 15mm to 10mm the
Belt type V-belt
Belt Velocity (m/s) 22 Parameters Test 1 Test 2 Test-3
Bearing type Ball bearing Percentage of un-threshed
Max. Permissible speed (rpm) 8000 grain %) 3.28 2.36 1.99
Threshing efficiency (%) 96.7 97.6 98.0
Threshing capacity (kg/hr) 156 132 120
Therefore it was shifted to the second variant of Total fuel consumption 1.9 1.6 1.5
the drum and tested with Degu finger millet at ( lit.//hr)
Adate research center. During the second test time Crop feeding rate (kg/hr) 343 370 253
the removal of bran from the seed was good. But Net operation time (min.) 30 30 30
chopping size and cleaning quality was poor. The Threshing drum speed 700 700 700
test result shows that the average output was (rpm)
117kg/hr., un threshed grain was 4.35% and fuel
consumption was 0.773 liter/hr. Thresher is capable threshing ability increased, especially to remove the
of threshing finger millet but it is not as the assumed thin layer from the seed. In addition the grain straw
one. It was aimed the output to be 200kg. But ratio was good and the length of straw also short.
Parameters Test -1 Test -2 Test -3 (Table 1) Therefore, these conditions enhance the
Percentage of un- output and decrease the rate of grain losses.
threshed grain (%) 4.70 3.87 4.47
Threshing efficiency (%) 95.30 96.13 95.53 Traditionally threshing of finger millet needs four
Cleaning efficiency (%) 75.87 74.33 78.00 to five day’s continuous threshing action than other
Threshing capacity cereal crops. Because of large amount of time
(kg/hr) 103.80 124.47 121.67 involved, it results, in loses of crop.
Total fuel consumption 0.678 0.867 0.774
( litter/hr)
Table 5 test results for variant two threshers for the
Crop feeding rate (kg/hr) 264 276 270
year of 2013
Net operation time (min.) 30 30 30

Threshing drum speed 700 700 700 Moreover, the output of man on threshing is very
(rpm) low and dependent on the efficiency of the animals
regarding of un threshed grain it was found as per and workers. From observation and farmer saying
objective. In other hand cleaning was found very the average output is estimated about 25kg/hr.
poor. The results are indicated in table 4. Therefore the result obtained on both years by
mechanical thresher having the combination of
spike tooth and rasp bar drum within the raw in
different lengths proportion, regarding output and
un threshed grain is very important for increasing of
productivity and reducing of grain losses.
V. Conclusion and recommendation
Major thresher parameters have been carried out
based on previous researches and design guides.
Tangential velocity and diameter of threshing
cylinder, power required for accomplishment of
threshing processes and strength of materials on
bending and shearing like shafts, key, bearings were
the major and vital design parameters that was under
taken. These design parameters make the thresher
technical visible and develop confidence on proper
selection of physical parameters of materials
As we know threshing output of man is very low.
Under these conditions the improvement of human
power and small scale machines are of great
importance as it is one of the first steps that can be
taken to raise crop yields and the farm income. As a
result, modifying of thresher for finger millet based
on the existing technologies supports the production
of finger mille through minimizing post harvest
losses.
Karnataka” : a case study. International Journal
of agriculture and Food Science technology
Volume 1, Number 1 (2010), pp. 47-53
5. D.C. Baruah and Panesar B.S (2004) “energy
requirement model for a combine harvester”,
Part I: Development of component models.
Biosystems Engineering, AAU Jorhia, India. 9-
25
6. Abu T, Zewdu A, T/giorges M Testing and
evaluation of multi crop thresher (Unpublished
document)
7. Snvastava, Ajit K., Carroll E. Goering, Roger P.
Rohrbach, and Dennis R. Buckmaste. 2006.
Grain harvesting. Chapter 12 in “Engineering
principles of Agricultural machines”, 2 nd ed.,
403-436. St. Joseph, Michigan. ASABE.
Copyright American Society of Agricultural and
Biological Engineers.
8. Bosoi E.S, Verniaev O.V, smirov I.I, Soltan-Shakh
E.G 1991 Theory, Construction and Calculation of
Agricultural Machines volume Two Russian
Translation Series 83, Great Britain

Therefore, selected threshing unite i.e.,

combination of spike tooth and rasp bar drum within
the raw in different lengths proportion, to attach
spike tooth, rasp bar, and straw thrower is found
good for threshing of local finger millet. It is hoped
that the labor intensive and time consuming efforts
during traditional threshing of finger millet will be
reduced and there will be an increasing of
productivity and reducing of grain losses.
It is believed that this thresher has to be enhanced
its output and verified under farmer condition and
participation for the future.

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Millet ( Eleusine coracana)”
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