M. Asghari Chenar; M. H. Rahmati; Sh. Nowrouzieh
Abstract
Gourd is one of summer crops cultivated in some provinces in Iran. Gourd Seeds contain high amounts of oil and proteins. Farmers in Iran usually use small pieces of lands to cultivate gourd. Therefore, it is not possible to apply big mechanical equipment for gourd harvesting and so for seed harvesting. ...
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Gourd is one of summer crops cultivated in some provinces in Iran. Gourd Seeds contain high amounts of oil and proteins. Farmers in Iran usually use small pieces of lands to cultivate gourd. Therefore, it is not possible to apply big mechanical equipment for gourd harvesting and so for seed harvesting. In other words, gourd seed harvesting should be done by small size ground seed harvesters. A device was designed, fabricated, and finally evaluated for mechanically harvesting gourd seeds in the workshop of Department of Agricultural Machinery at Gorgan University of Agricultural Science and Natural Resources. The effects of rotational speeds of separator cylinder (70, 65, 55 rpm), pitch angle of the cylinder (zero angle and three degrees with negative slope), and the size of meshes (1x3, 2x2 and 3x3 cm) on harvester performance were studied. In this research we used factorial experiments with 3 factors in three replications in completely randomized design. Results indicated that the effects of rotational speed and pitch angle of separator shaft on harvesting gourd seeds were significant at 5% level, and the effects of rotational speed of thresher cylinder on seed breaking were not significant. The results suggest that the best rotational speed for separator cylinder was 55 rpm and the best mesh size and pitch angle were 2x2 cm and zero degree.
Abbas Rezaei Asl; Ebrahim Esmaiehzadeh; Amir Amirian
Abstract
In this study, a distributor of the pressurized pneumatic cylinder for seed sowing machine was fabricated and the device was evaluated by a grease belt. In order to evaluate the distributor, two factors were investigated: grease belt speed, with three levels of 0.5, 1 and 1.5 meters per second and three ...
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In this study, a distributor of the pressurized pneumatic cylinder for seed sowing machine was fabricated and the device was evaluated by a grease belt. In order to evaluate the distributor, two factors were investigated: grease belt speed, with three levels of 0.5, 1 and 1.5 meters per second and three levels of air pressure inside of the distributor cylinder of 600, 850 and 1050 Pa, using wind separation method. The results of a factorial experiment in a completely randomized test design were evaluated by using SAS software and comparison of data was performed using LSD test . The effect of cylinder pressure and planter forward speed on the percentage of distributor pore filling, multi-planting, no-Planting, deviation from the line of cultivation and seed distribution uniformity were evaluated. The results showed that the filling percentage increases by an increase in cylinder pressure or by a decrease in velocity. The no-planting and multi-planting percentage had a reverse effect on the filling percentage. Furthermore, cylinder pressure and velocity did not affect the amount of deviation from the line of cultivation and also seeds were distributed more uniformly at low-pressure. According to the results of this study, the use of pneumatic planter by using a pressurized cylinder distributor for planting row crops, particularly mung bean is recommended.
Mohammad - Hashem Rahmati; Mohammad - Reza Alizadeh; Abbas Rezaei Asl; Ebrahim Esmail Zadeh
Abstract
Determination of the proper drying methods of rough rice is one of the effective factors on reducing the grain losses. In this study effect of air temperature in three levels (40, 50 and 60 °c) equivalent radiations intensity (0.031, 0.042 and 0.053 w.cm-3) and paddy final moisture in three levels ...
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Determination of the proper drying methods of rough rice is one of the effective factors on reducing the grain losses. In this study effect of air temperature in three levels (40, 50 and 60 °c) equivalent radiations intensity (0.031, 0.042 and 0.053 w.cm-3) and paddy final moisture in three levels (8-9, 9-10 and 10-11% d.b.) on the drying time and rice milling characterization of Domsiah variety were examined in the fluidized bed dryer with two thermal sources; infrared radiation and warm air stream. The experiments were conducted in factorial layout based on completely randomized design with three replications. The results indicated that the effects of air temperature and drying method on the broken grains, cracked grains and drying time was significant (P<0.01). With increasing the air temperature from 40 to 60 °c, the cracked percent (from 5 to 14%) and broken grains (from 26 to 39 %) increased and drying time (from 964 to 242 min) decreased. In each level of air temperature, the cracked grain and broken grain at the moisture content 8-9% and air temperature of 40 °c in the infrared dryer was minimum (5.67 and 26.9%, respectively) and it was maximum at the moisture contents of 8-9% and air temperature of 60°c (14 and 39.5%, respectively).
