J. Agric Sci. Mansoura Univ.

, 31(7): 53-68, 2006

PROPER DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF AN FOR EXTRACTING WATERMELON SEEDS

EQUIPMENT

Abou El-Magd* A.E., H.N. Abd El-Mageed**, M.A. Baiomey***, and I. F. Sayed-Ahmed**** * Prof. of Agric Eng., Fac. of Agric., Mansoura University. ** Vice-Dean for Com. Service, and Dev. of Environment Fac. of Agric., Man. Univ.. *** Senior researcher, of Agr. Eng. Res. Inst. (AEnRI), Dokki; Giza, Egypt. **** Researcher, of Agr. Eng. Res. Inst. (AEnRI), Dokki; Giza, Egypt.

ABSTRACT
An equipment for seed extraction from watermelon seed was designed, locally manufactured, and evaluated. It performed many functional processes namely: watermelon fruit crushing, seed separation from other fruit material (flesh and skin), skin releasing, and seed cleaning. Numerous theoretical relationships necessary to correlate the design parameters of the equipment operating mechanisms, with the physical and mechanical properties of watermelon fruits and seeds were analyzed and utilized as the database for design concepts. The performance of the fabricated equipment has been tested and evaluated versus different design and operating parameters, and also economically compared to the manual extraction method of watermelon seeds. The results indicated that the proper performance of the fabricated equipment has been achieved at crushing drum speed of 4.7 m/s, clearance concave of 24 mm and cleaning brushes number of 8 that rotating at peripheral speed of 4.7 m/s. Whereas, at these operating conditions maximum equipment productivity values of 217.4 kg/h, cleaning efficiency of 84.7%, minimum visible seed damage values of 0.398%, and minimum seed losses values of 3.83% have been recorded. The average unit power required for accomplishing all processes of the fabricated equipment may be amounted as 10.75 kW. While, the average net profit due to replacing the fabricated equipment instead of the manual extraction method of watermelon seeds may be amounted as 2992 L.E/fed

INTRODUCTION
Watermelon seeds is a strategic vegetable products in Egypt that can be exported to several Arab countries. It has been widely cultivated especially in Northern Regions of Egypt, such as Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, and newly reclaimed lands. The total cultivated area of watermelon is about 170000 fed., with an average seed yield of 470 kg/fed. (Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, 2001). In order to save farmer's efforts and time and to increase watermelon seed production quantity and quality, it has been realized the need to develop and use modern and improved watermelon machinery technology. In fact seed extraction machinery from watermelon are not available in Egypt. In addition the imported machines, are expensive and complicated design and operations leads to low efficiency, because they does not suit most Egyptian fruit and seed properties, (Abou El-Magd et al., 2002). Saving several million of pounds in Egyptian economy requires developing of locally and reliable machinery such as seed extraction equipment to suit in the prevailing Egyptian conditions.
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Many authors {Akubuo and Odigboh (1999), Abou-Elmagd, et al. (2002) mentioned that the knowledge of the physical and mechanical characteristics of agricultural products is important in the design, of agricultural machines and equipments. They studied the physical properties and characteristics of some agricultural crops and fruits, which can be used in the design and development of equipment. Humeida and Hobani (1993) determined the physical properties of twenty fruits types. These properties included the mass, volume, diameter, surface area, mass density, and spherically. They showed that the densities are differed significantly at the probability level of 0.1% the difference in mean diameter of the various cultivars is also significant at 5% level. They predicted equations to compute the surface area and volume using the mass or the mean diameter of the fruit. Puchalski and Brusewitz (1996a) recommended that the sliding speed, measurement of harvested fruit, and type of abrasive surface had a significant effect on both friction coefficients, except sliding speed did not affect the dynamic coefficient of friction. Normal force did not affect either coefficient and two watermelon cultivars had similar coefficient in most cases. Puchalski and Brusewitz (1996b) determined the abrasion resistance of watermelon from a linear, sliding friction test. Destructive and non-destructive parameters, potentially related to abrasion resistance, were acquired from the watermelon, the test abrasive surface, and the force-displacement curve. The distance to the beginning of skin removal and the area of skin removed were selected as the primary indicators of abrasion resistance. Suitability of the remaining parameters as abrasion resistance indicators was assessed through correlation with the primary indicators. Width of skin removed, distance to threshold of failure, and area ratio (skin removed area: contact area) had the highest correlation with the primary indicators. Kato, (1997) investigated the relationship between the density and the internal quality of watermelon fruits. He reported that the density of watermelon was found to be related both to the degree of hollowness and the soluble solids content. The soluble solids content of watermelon can be estimated from density and mass by multiple regression analysis. An optimum range of density was found which provides an indication of watermelon quality. He proposed a new electrical method for density sorting of spherical fruits, which measures the volume by electric capacity and mass by electronic balance. He also developed a new automatic density sorting system for measuring the degree of hollowness, which enables low density watermelons with cavities or deteriorated porous flesh to be removed and permits the soluble solids content of watermelons to be estimated. He concluded that the system was tested with satisfactory results. Matouk et al. (1999) evaluated the effect of some mechanical parameter on handling characteristics of sphere-like crops. They showed that the best ever handling result was obtained at 0.2 m/s speed of fruit feeding chain, 200 rpm sieve rocking speed and 15 degree of sieve slope angle during fruits handling using rectangular cell shape. The feasible methods, and machine design feathers used for seed extraction from watermelon fruits have been illustrated in numerous literatures. George, (1985) stated that the watermelon seeds are extracted by 54

J. Agric Sci. Mansoura Univ., 31(7): 53-68, 2006

cutting up fruits manually or mechanically then separated the seeds should be separated from pulp by washing with water manually or mechanically, then seeds are dried and cleaned. This is the common commercial method, Onyemelukwe, (1991) reported that the traditional method of extracting melon seeds from the fruit involves manual cracking of the fruits with wooden clubs or cutting off the head or tail poring the fruits with a knife, all done in order to create accepts for microorganisms to enter and cause the decomposition of the fleshy mesocarp and endocarp. The fruit so treated is left for about 7 days to decompose. Then seeds are removed by washing in water. That the traditional method requires a lot of time and labour. Berlage et al. (1984) developed a special indent drum separator using round-hole perforated metal. The entire drum was wrapped with sheet metal. They reported that although the machine made effective separations involving small length differences, seeds tended to lodge in the square-shouldered indents. To eliminate this problem, they designed a new drum with a selfcleaning feature. They showed that the separating area of the new drum is wrapped with a thin belt moving with the drum. So they held the belt is held off the drum to provide space for a cleaning brush immediately above the drum. They cleared that this brush, is rotating with the drum, removes seeds lodged in the holes In general it is observed that seed extraction with axial flow seed extraction machine was easier, faster and cheaper as compared to the traditional practice of manual seed extraction. The axial-flow vegetable seed-extracting machine was found to be suitable for wet seed extraction of most Indian vegetables. Vergano et al. (1992) studied that, the design aspects and performance of an axial-flow vegetable seed extracting machine. They compared the manual with the mechanical seed extraction for different vegetable fruits. They found that the manual seed extraction output was 0.47, 1.20, 1.26, 1.56, 1.83, 2.20 and 3.14 kg/man-h for cucumber, watermelon, tomato, summer squash, brinjal, squash melon and chillies, respectively. While, the productivity of the seed extracting machine varied from 310 to 1930 kg/h for all investigated vegetable fruits They added that germination count for mechanically extracted seeds was higher than for the manually extracted seeds. Hassan, (1994 in Arabic) reported that the methods of extracting vegetable seeds from soft fruits include the following steps: 1) Cutting and smashing the fruits mechanically as in tomatoes and watermelons or cutting them into two-halves manually using a knife as in sweet melon. 2) Extracting seeds from surrounding gelatin and smashed fruit parts by leaving the mixture from 2 to 4 days to ferment as in tomatoes or proceeding extraction mechanically as in different cucurbitaceae, pepper, eggplant and tomato. 3) Washing seed using running water. 4) Drying seeds naturally in drying climate or by exposing them to current of warm air in humid climate. In fact the factors affecting performance of seed extraction equipment have been also illustrated in numerous literatures. Sharma and Devnani (1980) noticed that feed rate and seed out put increased with the increase in drum tip speed and concave clearance. The seed out put was dependent upon crop variables rather than machine variables. Kepner et al., (1982)
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reported that reducing the drum-concave clearance tends to reduce drum losses and increase seed damage but the effects are generally rather small in comparison with the effects of increasing drum speed in laboratory tests. For example, changing the clearance from 19 to 6 mm reduced the drum loss from 2.1 to 1.2 % and increased visible damage from 5.4 to 7.8 %. Abd El-Hameed, (1994) noticed that increasing the drum speed increased separating efficiency. The maximum separating efficiency was obtained by using metal spike drum, hole concave type and drum -concave clearance. Akubuo and Odigboh (1999) found that the production rate of manual extracting machine prototype was about 458 fruits/h while that for the motorized machine was 2390 fruits/h as against a hand-peeling rate of 29 fruits/h. The decomposition of the mesocarp and endocarp was accelerated by coring the seed-bearing pulp of the fruits took 2 days to decompose as against 7 days for the traditional method. Vergano et al. (1992) studied that the
design aspects and performance of an axial-flow vegetable seed extracting machine. They cleared that the seed extraction output for manual methods varied from 0.11 kg to 1.65 kg/man-h. Seed germination varied between 69 and 86.4 %.

From the above mentioned and for replacing the mechanical seed extraction instead of the manual extraction method, there were two extreme choices that faced the authors of the present study. The first was to import seed extraction implement and with some modifications make it suitable for the Egyptian extraction conditions. The second was to design and locally manufacture seed extraction equipment, which could be exchangeable according the used seed properties. The later choice was seen to be probably a better approach Therefore, the aim of present study was to design locally manufacture and evaluate an equipment for seed extraction from watermelon seed The present study covers the following main objectives: 1) Deriving the necessary theoretical relationships to correlate the design parameters of the operating mechanisms, with the main physical and mechanical properties of watermelon crop and seeds 2) locally fabricated the equipment to perform fruit crushing, seed separation from flesh and crushed skin, skin releasing, and seed cleaning processes. 3) Evaluation the extraction performance of the fabricated equipment under different design and operation parameters. 4) Comparing the extraction performance of the fabricated equipment with the manual extraction method of watermelon seeds.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The main physical and mechanical properties of watermelon fruits and seeds were measured to collect the required informations to help in the mechanical rushing and extraction of seeds from watermelon. A number of 100 fruits were randomly chosen from different farms and zones at Kafr ElSheikh Governorate to determine these properties. The determined properties were measured according to standard methods in the laboratory at Rice Mechanization Center, Meet El-Dyba, Kafr El-Sheikh. The average and standard deviation (Sd) main characteristics of watermelon fruits and seeds are plotted in Table 1.

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Table 1: Main Characteristics of the tested watermelon crop Characteristics Average Sd 1. Dimensions: a) Watermelon fruit: 37.41 3.7 - Smaller circumference, mm - Bigger circumference, mm 38.84 3.8 b) Watermelon seed: 15.34 0.3 - Length, mm 9.5 0.05 - Width, mm 2.67 0.15 - Thickness, mm 2. Mass: 1054 222 - Mass of watermelon fruit, g/fruit 39.17 8.79 - Mass of seeds per fruit, g 344.1 96.36 - Mass of peel per fruit, g 667.1 119.31 - Mass of flesh per fruit, g 3. Number of watermelon fruits/fed. 20802 3 4. Volume of fruit, cm 1082.2 235.1 3 5. Density of fruit, g/cm 0.970 0.02 6. Coefficient of friction against metal. 0.522 0.02 The designed seed extraction equipment was manufactured at a local workshop in Sheno, Village, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate while the preliminary tests and calibrations were conducted at the workshop of Rice Mechanization Center (RMC), Meet El-Dyba Kafr El-Sheikh. That equipment could be driven from Tractor PTO having hp gasoline engine equipped with a 6 to 1 gear. Fig. 1: shows a photograph view of fabricated equipment, while Fig. (2) indicate a schematic diagram of that equipment . The fabricated seed extraction equipment was planned to perform the following processes: fruit crushing, seed separation from the flesh and other fruit material, skin releasing, and seed cleaning. A combination of impact and rubbing actions were proposed to accomplish the seed extraction processing. Hence, the essential elements of the fabricated equipment are as follows:(1) A drop type hopper that delivers the watermelon fruits depending on gravity across an orifice to a revolving drum. Whereas, feeding trays were used to feed watermelon fruits into the crushing part. These trays have been manufactured from galvanized steel sheet of 1.5 mm thickness. (2) The Crushing drum that has been manufactured from galvanized steel with 45 cm diameter, 120 cm length and 3 mm thickness. It consists of three portions as shown Fig. (2). The front portion has crushing knives (8 knives) mounted at some angle on the circumference of drum at equal distance in a helical arrangement These knives strike the fruits which are displaced not only in the plane of the drum rotation, but also in its knife axial direction. Hence. the crushed fruit parts are forced to transport through a gap between a concave and the drum to a central location on the drum The central portion is the separating portion. It has a number of rubber cleaning brushes: Its dimensions are 50 x 4 cm and 2.5 cm
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thickness. The brush fingers are fitted also in a helical arrangement. These rubber brushes repeat impact and rubbing actions on the crushed mass and performs a series of cyclic operations. The end portion has a number of blades arranged in a straight path on the drum whereas, the skin and other fruit contaminants are delivered to the blades portion at the end of the drum where the skin is released.

Fig. 1: A photograph view of fabricated equipment.

Fig. 2: A schematic diagram of designed seed extractor. (3) Concave: It is a mesh of a semi-circle shape surrounded below the drum, it constructed from a steel sheet of 3 mm thickness with main dimensions of 140 x 120 cm. It has square holes (openings) 16 x 16 mm, to allow only the mixture of seeds and liquid flesh material to pass through its holes, and the peel pieces are prevented. 58

J. Agric Sci. Mansoura Univ., 31(7): 53-68, 2006

(4) Screw conveyer that was equipped to convey the fall downward mixture of seeds and flesh liquid. Consequently, that mixture moves towards the front of a carries and delivers it to the cleaning unit. (5) Transmission system (6) Steel frame It was fabricated from squire channel iron 70 x 70 x 7 mm, and was mounted on two rubber wheels seed collection pan. Those elements, along with a fruit loading hopper and the necessary drive components, are mounted on a tubular steel frame having a wall thickness of 3.2 mm. The technical specifications of the fabricated prototype indicated in Table 2. Table 2: Main technical specifications of the fabricated equipment Items Specifications Manufacturer Locally small workshop Overall length (cm) 266 Total Width (cm) 158 Total Height (cm) 216 Mass (kg) 500 Source of power for operating Tractor P.T.O. Crushing cylinder length (cm) 120 Drum diameter (cm) 45 Crushing knives dimension (cm) 36.6 cm length x 6.0 cm height x 1.0 cm thickness. Feeding Tray dimension (cm) 55 x 37 x 60 Output seeds opening diameter (cm) 30 Outlet opening for peels (cm) 20 x 30.8 x 15.2 The fabricated equipment has been tested and evaluated considering different number of knives on drum (2, 4, 6 and 8 knives), different feeding rates (60, 70, 80 and 90 kg per min), different drum speeds(4.71, 7.07, 9.43 and 11.79 m/s). and different clearances between the concave and drum(24, 32 and 40 mm). different numbers of cleaning brushes (4 and 8 brushes) and different brushes rotation speeds ( 2.36, 3.14, 3.93 and 4.71 m/s). The effect of previous considered parameters on the performance of fabricated equipment were evaluated in terms of total losses, seed damage, fuel consumption, energy and cost requirements. The effect of number and speed of brush on cleaning efficiency was also studied. The visible seed damage was calculated according to Desta and Mishra, (1990) as follows:
Mass of broken seeds in sample, g (M b ) 100 -- (1) Total mass of seeds in sample, g (M t ) The separation capacity of the fabricated equipment was calculated as follows:Mass of classified seeds, kg (M) 60 ------------------ (2) Separation capacity, kg/h (C) = Experimentrunning time, min (Ts ) Visible seed damage, % (Vis ) =

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Seed losses: The seeds that found mixed with peels for each treatment was manually clocked and weighted. Hence the percentages of seed losses were determined using the following relationship: M1 Seed losses , % = x 100 ----------------------------------------------------- (3) M1 + M 2 where: M1 = Mass of seed mixed with the expelled peels, g. M2 = Mass of clean seeds from output opening, g. Cleaning efficiency: The cleaned seeds were collected from the seed opening and weighed (Mc). Also, the seeds, which expelled with the peels and foreign matters were picked and weighed (ML). The cleaning efficiency was calculated according the following equation: Mc The cleaning efficiency, % = x 100 --------------------------------------------- (4) Mc + ML Determination of power consumed: The total power consumed by the extraction equipment was calculated in relation fuel consumed during operation according to ASAE (1983). FC ------------------------------------- (5) EqvPTO= 2.64 RAT+ 3.91- 0.2 738 RAT+ 173 Where: Eqv PTO = Equivalent PTO power consumed by the implement, kW; FC = Fuel consumption, l/h, and

RAT

Eqv PTO ----------------------------------------------------------- (6) Max. PTO available

Cost: estimated according to Hunt, (1983) as follows:

Total cost (LE/h)= Fixed cost (LE/h)+ Variable cost (LE/h) -----------------(7)
Unit costs (UC): The unit costs, (LE/ton) was estimated as follows:Total cost LE/h ---------------------------------------------------Unitl cost LE/ton = Eouipment capacity (8) Estimation of criterion cost: The criterion cost was estimated according to the following equation Cr = Uc + Lc + Visc --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (9) where: - Cr Uc Lc Visc = the criterion cost, LE/fed; = unit cost, LE/ton; = losses cost, LE/ton, and = visible damage cost, LE/ton.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

1. Visible Seed Damage Performance:
The data of visible seed damage as affected by different equipment variables under study are plotted in Table (3), and shown in Figs. (3 and 4). It can be seen that increasing feed rate from 60 to 90 kg/min., decreased visible 60

J. Agric Sci. Mansoura Univ., 31(7): 53-68, 2006

seed damage by 31%. That is may be due to decreasing the impact forces between watermelon seeds. Since the high dense of watermelon fruits between the drum and concave in the case of high feed rates, causes damping action and less crushing effect than lower feed rates, On the other hand, increasing drum speed from 4.71 to 11.79 m/s, increased visible seed damage from 0.398 to 0.551%. The increment damage percentage approached 38.44% as the drum speed increased by 1.5 times. The visible seed damage increased from 0.41 to 0.55% as the number of knives increases from 2 to 8 knives. It is evident that 2 knives gave the lowest values of visible seed damage compared with the other knives numbers of 4, 6 and 8 knives at the average of feed rates, drum speeds and concave clearances. Referring the data in Fig. 3, increasing the drum-concave clearance from 24 to 40 mm at the average effect of the other variables tended to decrease the visible seed damage from 0.529 to 0.422%. Table 3: Effects of the equipment variables under study on average visible seed damage %, seed losses, %, and seed productivity, kgw/h
Variables Feed rate, (kg/min) 60 70 80 90 4.71 7.07 9.43 11.79 2 4 6 8 24 32 40 Visible seed damage% 0.561 0.507 0.448 0.388 0.398 0.451 0.504 0.551 0.410 0.454 0.494 0.547 0.529 0.477 0.422 Seed losses, % 4.49 5.01 5.40 5.68 3.83 4.37 5.40 6.99 5.37 4.49 4.82 5.91 4.79 5.16 5.49 Productivity, kgw/h 172.89 200.43 227.99 256.54 217.40 216.22 213.88 210.34 213.95 215.95 215.19 212.76 215.25 214.43 213.71

Drum speed, (m/s)

Number of knives

Clearance, mm

2. Seed Losses Performance:

The data presented in Table 3 and Figs. 3 and 4 show that increasing the feed rate from 60 to 90 kg/min., increased seed losses from 4.49 to 5.68%. It was observed that increasing the feed rate tends to increase the seed losses at all variable levels. However, the seed losses increased by 26.5% as the feed rate increased from 60 to 90 kg/min. It can be stated that drum speed had considerably effect on the seed losses. Seed losses increased from 3.83% to 6.90% when the drum speed increased by 1.5 times. This trend may be because of decreasing the impact force of knives and the kinetic energy of the seeds, which make seed more, subjected to the smashing forces. The minimum seed losses percentages were associated with 4 drumknives compared with the other knife numbers (2, 6 and 8 knives). However,
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increasing or decreasing the drum-knives number more or less than 4 knives tends to increase seed losses The seed losses increased 19.6% as the drumknives number decreased from 4 to 2, and increased 31.6% as knives number increased from 4 to 8 knives. In addition, Increasing the drum-concave clearances from 24 to 40 mm increased seed losses from 4.79 to 5.49%. It seems that increasing the drum-concave clearance tends to increase the seed losses at any tested level of feed rate, drum speed, and drum-knives number.

Fig. 3: Effect of drum speed and feed rate on visible seed damage and seed losses.

Fig. 4: Effect of number of knives and drum-concave clearances on visible seed damage and seed losses. 62

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3. Machine productivity
The data presented in the Table 3 show that increasing feed rate from 60 to 90 kg/min., an increased productivity from 172.89 to 256.54 kgw/h. It is clear that machine productivity increased by 48.38 % when the feed rate increased from 60 to 90 kg/min at same conditions. The data indicated that average values of productivity slightly decreased when the drum speed ranged from 4.71 to 11.79 m/s. This result may be attributed to decrease available time for passing seeds through concave holes when drum speed is increased. Machine productivity decreased when drum-knives number increased more than 4 knives for all the other parameters. This may be because of decreasing crushing efficiency in ease of the 2 drum-knives, which gave large pecie from peel with flesh while the 6 and 8 drum-knives gave a small pecies of peel mixed with seeds which increased the losses ratio. This result may be due to decrease the adhesion force between seeds and flesh because of decreasing cushion force between the peel and the flesh. It was observed that, the minimum values of seed losses were associated with 4 drum-knives compared with the other numbers of knives (2, 6 and 8 knives). However, increasing or decreasing the drum-knives more or less than 4 knives tends to increase seed losses for all variables under study as shown Fig. 5. The results indicated also that increasing the drum-concave clearance from 24 to 40 mm tended to decrease the machine productivity from 215.3 to 313.7 kgw/h.

Fig.5: Effect of number of knives and drum-concave clearance on productivity.

4. Cleaning Efficiency:
The effect of feeding rate, drum speed, brush speed and number of brushes on cleaning efficiency of watermelon seeds after extracting operation is indicated in Table 4 and Fig. 6. Cleaning efficiency increased only as using 4 knives on the drum and 40 mm drum-concave clearance. The obtained
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values of cleaning efficiency decreased 9.08% when feed rate increased from 60 to 90 kg/min. Cleaning efficiency decreased by 13.59% when the drum speed was increased from 4.71 to 11.79 m/s. The increment rate in cleaning efficiency by increasing brush speed from 2.36 to 3.93 m/s was more than by increasing brush speed from 3.93 to 4.71 m/s. The decrease of cleaning efficiency may be due to the insufficient time to clean the extracting seeds with increasing the feed rate and drum speed. Similar trend was obtained at any given study parameters. Table 4:Interaction effects of feed rate, drum speed, brush speed, and number of brush on cleaning efficiency
Feed Drum rate, speed, kg/min m/s 4.71 7.07 9.43 11.79 4.71 7.07 9.43 11.79 4.71 7.07 9.43 11.79 4.71 7.07 9.43 11.79 Cleaning efficiency, % Brush speed, m/s 2.36 3.14 3.93 4 8 4 8 4 8 brushes brushes brushes brushes brushes brushes 83.97 87.25 85.02 89.55 86.23 92.45 81.66 84.94 82.71 87.24 83.92 90.14 73.89 76.76 77.79 81.42 83.56 86.75 69.22 71.34 71.55 75.23 76.64 78.46 81.15 84.06 83.28 87.56 84.79 89.83 78.84 81.75 80.97 85.25 82.48 87.52 73.15 75.86 77.14 80.28 82.50 84.37 67.69 70.45 69.96 72.81 75.06 78.29 79.91 83.21 81.43 84.90 83.03 86.55 77.60 80.90 79.12 82.59 80.72 84.24 72.93 74.59 75.79 78.20 79.32 82.54 65.23 67.92 68.45 71.77 72.53 76.31 75.78 77.08 77.67 81.45 80.00 83.72 72.47 74.77 75.36 79.14 77.69 81.41 69.51 71.63 72.49 74.36 75.98 77.82 63.14 65.48 66.54 69.17 70.23 72.85

60

70

80

90

4.71 4 8 brushes brushes 88.26 94.47 85.95 92.16 87.86 91.06 82.17 85.90 86.09 91.34 83.78 89.03 86.17 89.82 79.74 82.56 84.76 88.17 82.45 85.86 83.62 86.21 76.82 80.14 81.98 85.47 79.67 83.16 78.30 80.91 73.22 75.28

Fig.6: Effect of brush speed, feed rate and drum speed on cleaning efficiency 64

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The results also indicated that the 8 brushes recorded the maximum values of cleaning efficiency compared with the 4 brushes. The cleaning efficiency increased by 4.33% as a result of using 8 brushes instead of 4 brushes.

5. Consumed power:
The average values of consumed power as affected by feed rates, drum speeds and drum- knives number is plotted in Table 5. and Fig. 7. Decreasing the feed rate from 90 to 60 kg/min., the power consumed decreased from 32.07%. As the feed rate is increased the power consumed for extracting machine increased at same levels of variables. Similar results were indicated by Sharma and Devnani (1980) and Gummert et al. (1992). Table 5: Interaction effect between of feed rate, drum speed and number of knives on consumed power, kW and net profit Feed rate, kg/min 60 70 80 90 Mean Consumed power, kW Drum speed, m/s 4.71 7.07 9.43 11.79 Mean 8.75 9.55 10.4 11.3 10.0 9.96 10.8 11.8 12.9 11.3 11.3 12.3 13.3 14.5 12.8 12.9 14.1 15.3 16.6 14.7 10.75 11.70 12.72 13.87 12.26 Net profit, LE/Fed. Drum speed, m/s 7.07 9.43 11.79 2980 2917 2827 2963 2891 2815 2947 2871 2804 2946 2868 2808 2959 2887 2814

4.71 3031 2998 2974 2967 2992

Mean 2939 2917 2899 2897 2913

Fig. 7: Effect of feed rate and drum speed on power consumed. Increasing drum speed from 4.71 to 11.79 m/s tended to increase power consumed by 29.02%. Similar results were indicated by Baiomy et al. (1999). That result trend may by due to power required to the material increasing and speed, as the drum speed increase. The capacity and feed rate increased that result more torque to extract the seeds.
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6. Cost analysis
According to data of Table (5) the net profit of watermelon seed was affected by feeding rate and drum speed. Maximum values of net profit were achieved at feeding rate of 60 kg/min. While, the least net profit was estimated at 90 kg/min feed rate for all different ranges of drum speed. The data also indicted that increasing the drum speed by 1.5 times leads to decrease net profits by about 6% under all different values of feed rates.

7.Comparison of watermelon seed

manual

and

mechanical

extraction

of

The manual watermelon seed extraction cost was estimated according to data of survey and personal communications with farmers. Seed extraction of one feddan required 25 labours as an average. Each labour cost 10 LE per day. Also the total seed losses for manual extracting were 3.5 % represented about 110 LE/fed. Thus, the manual extraction of watermelon seeds cost about 360 LE per feddan. Comparing data of mechanical and manual watermelon seed extraction cost, two nots may be highlighted: 1) The developed unit save about by 51 % compared to the manual extraction. 2) The developed unit may save about 62.15 % of extraction time compared to the manual method.

CONCLUSION
1. The locally fabricated extraction prototype showed high efficiency for extracting watermelon seeds with reasonable cost. 2. Increasing feed rate decrease the visible seed damage, cleaning efficiency and net profit in addition to increase seed losses, machine productivity and power consumed. 3. Minimum tested drum speed 4.71 m/s achieved maximum machine productivity 217.4 kg/h, cleaning efficiency 84.7% and net profit 2992 L.E/fed. Minimum values of visible seed damage 0.398%, seed losses 3.83% and power consumed 10.75 kW compared with the other levels 7.07, 9.43 and 11.79 m/s. 4. Increasing number of knives increased visible seed damage and seed losses, and decreased power consumption at all other levels of studied variables. 5. Maximum machine productivity 215.25 kg/h and visible seed damage 0.529% in addition to the minimum value of seed losses 4.79% was accomplished at 24 mm clearance concave. The maximum cleaning efficiency was obtained with brush speed of 4.7 m/s and number of brush of 8. 6. Finally, the feed rate of 60 kg/min and drum speed of 4.71 m/s had been attained the minimum values of seed losses and the maximum values of machine productivity and net profit. Number of knives of 4 and clearance concave of 24 mm recorded the lowest values of seed losses and the highest values of productivity. So, it is considered the optimum conditions for operating the prototype to obtain the maximum efficiency and profit addition to minimum cost. 66

J. Agric Sci. Mansoura Univ., 31(7): 53-68, 2006

6. LITERATURE CITED
Abdel-Hameed, E.M.A. (1994). Studying concave drum factors and operation of a locally manufactured thresher and their effect on thresher and their effect on threshing efficiency. M. Sc. Thesis, Agric. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Agric., AinShames University. Abou-Elmagd, A.E.; A.S. Hamam; M.A. EL-Saadany and S.A. El-Kawaga (2002) Design of a cone-end detacher for orange picking Misr. J. Ag. Eng. 19(2): 491-507. Akubuo, C.O. and E.U. Odigboh (1999). Egusi fruit coring machine. J. Agric. Engng Res. 74: 121-126. ASAE (1983). Publ. by the Amer. Soc. of Agric. Eng., St. Joseph, Michigan, USA. Baiomy, M.A.; A.H.A. Mohamed; I. Yehia and E.M. Arif (1999) Performance of AMRI and Gabr Threshers. Misr J. Agric. Eng., 16 (4): 340-350. Baldwin, J.A. (1990). Peanut, a growers guide to quality. J. publ. by Planters Lifes Savers Co., Winston-Salem, North Carolina, US. Desta, K.D. and T.W. Mishra (1990). Development and performance evaluation of Sorghum thresher. AMA, 21(3): 33-37. El-Behiry, A.A.; M.I.Ward and A.M. El-Sherbieny (1997). Performance evaluation of some wheat thresher machines under different conditions. Misr J. Agric. Eng. 14(4): 149-160. Gummert, M.; H.D. Kutzbach; W. Muhlbauer; P. Wacker and G.R. Quick (1992). Performance evaluation of an IRRI axial-flow paddy thresher. AMA, 23(3): 4754. Humeida, M.A. and A.I., Hobani. (1993). Phyaical properties of pomegranate fruits. J. King Saud Univ. Vol.5., Sci. (2).165-175. Hunt, D. (1983). Farm power and machinery management 8 th Ed., Iowa state Univ., Press Ames, U.S.A. Kato, K. (1997). Electrical density sorting and estimation of soluble solids content of watermelon. J. Agric. Engng Res. 67: 161-170. Kepner, R.A.; R. Bainer and E.L. Barger (1982). Principles of farm machinery. 5th Edition AVI Pub. Co., U.S.A. Matouk, A.M.; A.M. El-Gindy; Y.M. El-Hadidi; E.A. Amin and M.M. El-Rahman (1999). Evaluating the effect of some mechanical parameters on handling characteristics of sphere-like crops. Misr J. Ag. Eng., 16 (4): 701-719. Puchalski, C. and G.H. Brusewitz (1996a). Watermelon surface abrasion assessment method. Transactions of the ASAE 39(2): 581-588. Puchalski, C. and G.H. Brusewitz (1996b). Watermelon abrasion resistance parameters from friction tests. Transactions of the ASAE 39(5): 1765-1771. Sharma, K.D. and R.S. Devnani (1980). Threshing studies on soybean and cowpea. AMA, Winter, 11 (3): 65-68. Srivastava, A.K.; C.E. Goering and R.P. Rohrbach (1993). Engineerng principles of agricultural machines. ASAE Textbook No. 6, Published by the ASAE. Vergano, P.J.; R.F. Testion; A.C. Choudhari and W.C. Newall. (1992). Peach vibration bruising: The effect of paper and plastic films between peaches. J. of Food Quality 15(3):183-197.

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6002 ,Abou El-Magd, et al., Agric. Eng. Conference, Mansoura Univ., July

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