Design and fabrication

of paddy thresher

Department of Mechanical Engineering

College of Technology, GBPUA&T, Pantnagar

Group Members-
Swati Pathak 49205
Shriya Pandey 49180
Manjul Rautela 50733
Km. Laxmi 50736
 Introduction
 The separation of grains from their chaff and
straw in the North Western Himalayan Region
is usually done by bullock treading or by
manual beating. In the hilly areas, threshing of
paddy is conventionally carried out using
muscle power, either by beating out the grains
with sticks or by rubbing out under feet, both of
which involve much time and labour.
 The beating method leads to loss of grain
though shattering.
 Transportation of heavy machines in hilly areas
is also very difficult. Most of the farmers in
these areas prefer to own machines that can
be transported by a single man on his back. As
a result, machines need to weigh less than 35
kg.
Existing Threshers

Manual
Power operated
Thresher
Thresher
 Existing threshers
 Several engine or power operated threshers have been designed
in the past but they have not been successful in the hilly areas
because of cost, weight and electrical power requirement
problems.
 Das and Das (1989) developed and studied a paddy thresher
and observed that higher capacity and optimum threshing
efficiency can be achieved by threshing the paddy crop at a
peripheral velocity of 622m/min. However, because of electric
power requirements it was found to be unsuitable for the farms of
NWHR.
 Another axial paddy thresher was developed at IRRI, Philippines,
with a capacity of 100 kg/h (Khan, 1971). Although it was used
extensively in some pockets of the Northeast region of India,
Bengal and Orissa, hill farmers in the NWHR were reluctant to
purchase it because they had difficult terrain, small land holdings
and low production, and it cost more than INR 9000 and weighed
more than 35 kg.
Existing thresher used in the
region(North Western Himalayan
Region)
 The paddy produced in the NWHR is usually threshed by
manual beating or by bullock treading.
 Combine Harvesters are used very rarely in hills.
 Mechanism of Existing
Thresher

 consists of a threshing cylinder, concave, two

aspirator blowers, reciprocating sieves, feeding
chute, feeding conveyor, feed rollers, safety lever in
the feeding chute and flywheel.
 Generally, a platform is attached to the main frame
of thresher, on which a person stands and feeds the
crop into thresher. All the crop materials are fed
through the conveyor of feeding chute and feed
rollers move the crop into threshing cylinder. The
machine is operated by PTO of a 35-hp tractor and
is mounted on two pneumatic tyres for easy
transportation.
Existing thresher
 Demerits of Existing
Threshers
 Unaffordable for small-scale peasants with small land
holdings in the hilly regions.
 Require more than one person to carry out the process
effectively(one for feeding and for driving it if it is driven
manually).
 Bulky
 Not portable
 ergonomically not suitable, the operator is often tired after
the process since no proper ergonomic considerations are
taken while designing.
 Mechanism of proposed
thresher
 This paddy thresher of pedal operated type consists of
mainly a well-balanced cylinder with a series of wire
loops fixed on the rotating cylinder.
 It has got chain drive mechanism to transmit power.
While cylinder is kept in rotary motion at high speed, the
paddy bundles of suitable sizes are applied to the teeth.
The grains are separated by combining as well as by
hammering action of threshing teeth.
 Paddy is threshed due to impact and rubbing action
between threshing drawn loops and concave screen. The
grains are cleaned with the help of a fan and cleaned
grain goes down through the grain outlet at the bottom of
the thresher.
Proposed Model

3-D model (CATIA)

 Parts of the proposed thresher
 Rotating Drum
 Blower
 Pedal
 Grain loss protecting roof
 Chain and sprocket system to effectively
transmit power from the pedal to the
threshing drum.
 V-shaped wire loops to be welded on the
periphery of the drum which will provide the
required beating action for detaching the
paddy from the straw.
 Back rest, seat and hand rest to be
designed considering ergonomics.
 Parts
 Wire loop type cylinder: In this type of threshing drum,
there is hallow cylinder, over which a number of wooden
or MS plates are fitted. On these plates, number of wire
loops is fixed for threshing purposes. This type of cylinder
is common in the manually operated paddy threshers.
Holding the bundle against the loops of revolving cylinder
does threshing of paddy crop.
 Shaking mechanism: The screens are oscillated or
shaken with a crank attached to the screen. This crank is
powered from main axle either by belt or by rod. The
circular motion of the main shaft is converted into
oscillating motion of screen, which shakes it and
separates the grain from other foreign material and chaff.
The separating effectiveness depends on the frequency of
strokes of crank, which is adjustable.
 Differences from the existing
threshers
 LIGHT WEIGHT: In existing threshers, mild steel sheet is
used as protecting roof which increases total weight to
around 50 kgs. Here, we aim at using lighter materials.
For ex- Polycarbonate sheet is used instead of the mild
steel sheet for the safety cover.
 Seat and hand rest is designed keeping in mind the
ergonomics so that long-time operation can be carried out
satisfactorily. Spinal column(15 degree from the vertical
plane) and arms (angle between lower and upper arm 135
degree) of the operator remain in a comfortable position.
The seat and hand rest can be adjusted according to the
needs of the operator.
Advantages of the proposed thresher

Can be used by small scale peasants for increasing the

self-sufficiency in food production demand

Economic and light-weight(can be handled by one person).

Simple design and construction which can be copied easily

by the local blacksmiths.

Portable enough for remote areas like hills where terrace

farming is employed and only small patches of land are
under crop cover averaging to 0.4 ha per household.
 Calculation and Interpretations:

 POWER TRANSMISSION UNIT :

1. Pedal to Shaft
2. Shaft to threshing cylinder
3. Shaft to blower
 Velocity ratio for chain drive:
V.R= N1 / N2 = T2 / T1 ;
N1 is speed of smaller sprocket in rpm; N2 is speed of larger sprocket in rpm;
The average velocity of chain is :
V=( π*d*N) / 60 ; d is pitch circle diameter of sprockets;
Pitch line velocity = (T*p*N) / 60;
p= pitch of the chain; and T is no. of teeth of smaller sprocket;
Load on the chain= (Rated power) / (pitch line velocity);
 sprocket

Front view
Side view

Top view

Schematic view of chain conveyor of thresher

Center Distance Between The Sprockets:
The minimum center distance between the sprockets for
the velocity ratio transmitted of about 3 may be calculated
as :
x=[ (d1 + d2) / 2 ] + 30 to 50 mm;
 DESIGN OF THRESHING DRUM:
1)Revolution of threshing drum:
 N = (60* (v)) / (π*D)
 v is peripheral speed
 D= diameter of cylinder m;
N = revolution of threshing drum rpm
2) Diameter of threshing drum (D) :
D =( peripheral speed ) / (π*N)
3) Length Of Cylinder Drum:
For effective threshing the ratio of length of cylinder
to diameter must be 1.75
DESIGN OF BLOWER:

The velocity of air must be less than the terminal velocity

which is found to be in the range of 6.85 to 7.89 m/s
at 13% moisture content.
 The Discharge Of Air For Blowing The Impurities :
Actual air flow, Q=‘A’ X ‘V’
The efficiency of blower can be considered as 30%;
Theoretical discharge, Q(theoretical)= π* d* b*v
 Power Requirement For Blower:
 P=(2 π N T) / (60);
 T= (m*g) x (D/2);
CONCAVE AND SIEVE DESIGN :

 Length of concave:
 The dimensions of concave significantly affect the
threshing of the crop, grain slippage and the breakup
of straw. When the length of the concave is increased,
the under milling decreases since the number of
impacts sustained by the same portion of the crop
and the length traversed by it increases.
 A longer concave increases grain slippage, reducing
grain loss and load on the straw rack. In modern
combines, the length of the concave is 400 to 600 mm.
The concave sieves 60 to 85 % of the grain through its
apertures.
Shaft Design:
 When the shaft is subjected to combine twisting
moment and bending moment, then the shaft must be
designed on the basis of the two moments
simultaneously. Various theories have been
suggested to account for the elastic failure of the
materials when they are subjected to various types of
combined stresses.
 To calculate combined stress two theories are
important that are:
 1. Maximum shear stress theory or Guest’s theory. It
is used for ductile materials such as mild steel.
 2. Maximum normal stress theory or Rankine’s theory.
It is used for cast iron and brittle materials.
 Diameter of the shaft (d) is given by:
SHAFT DIAMETER CALCULATION :
Design calculation for chain drive :