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Effect of Threshing Cylinders on Seed Damage

and Viability of Moongbean (Vigna radiate. (L.)
Wilezee
ARTICLE in AMA, AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION IN ASIA, AFRICA & LATIN AMERICA OCTOBER 2006
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1 AUTHOR:
Shiv Kumar Lohan
Punjab Agricultural University
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Effect of Threshing Cylinders on Seed Damage and

Viability of Moongbean (Vigna radiate . (L.) Wilezee)
by

Shiv Kumar Lohan

Dept. of Seed Science and Technology,
CCS Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar - 125004
INDIA
shivkumarlohan@hau.ernet.in

Abstract
An experiment was conducted to
compare hammermill, spike tooth
and raspbar threshing cylinders
with respect to cylinder speed and
concave clearance for damage free
seeds, maximum threshing, high
ger mination and less elect rical
conductivity of moongbean. The
minimum seed damage (1.1 %) and
maximum germination (89 %) was
found with the use of a raspbar
threshing cylinder which resulted
in less threshing efficiency (91.5
%) under lower cylinder speed (400

r pm) and higher concave clearance (15 mm). With the spike tooth
threshing cylinder, minimum seed
damage (3.6 %), maximum germination (87 %) and minimum electrical conductivity (1.06 ms) was found
under lower cylinder speed (400
rpm) and higher concave clearance
(15 mm). In the hammermill cylinder, minimum seed damage (3.8 %),
maximum germination (86 %) and
minimum electrical conductivity
(1.02 ms) was observed under lower
cylinder speed (400 rpm) and higher
concave clearance (15 mm).

Table 1 Optimum combination of threshing cylinder, cylinder speed and concave

clearance for minimum seed damage and maximum percent germination
Cylinder
speed,
rpm
Hammer mill
400
Spike tooth
400
Raspbar
400
Threshing
cylinder

Concave
clearance,
mm
15
15
15

Seed
Threshing
Germin
damage, effiiciency,
-ation, %
%
%
3.8
94.7
86
3.6
93.8
87
1.1
91.5
89

Electrical
conductivity, ms-1
1.02
1.06
1.07

Introduction
Threshing involves the detachment of seed from the panicles/
pods. It is one of the most important
post-harvest operations for most of
the agricultural crops especially for
oilseed and pulses. Basic principles
employed in threshing are shear,
rubbing, impact and their combination. The force applied by threshing
cylinders usually results in splitting
of dicot seeds, such as Chickpea
(Cicer aeritinum. L), Moongbean
(Vigna radiate. (L.) Wilezee) and
Soybean (Glycine max. (L.) Menill)
and the seed damage may go up
to 20 to 25 percent, which is a big
loss to the seed sector and the farmers (Kamble and Panwar, 1984).
Threshing performance and damage of seeds is affected by several
parameters, viz. type of threshing
cylinder, moisture content of crop,
cylinder speed, feed rate, concave

Plate 1 Threshing cylinder

Hammer mill

Spike tooth

VOL.39 NO.4 2008 AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION IN ASIA, AFRICA, AND LATIN AMERICA

Raspbar

51

clearance, blower speed, aspirator

speed and laborers skill. Therefore,
evaluation was done to quantify
the effect of influence of the most
important factors, viz. threshing
cylinders, cylinder speed and concave clearance on seed damage and
viability of moongbean seeds.

Material and Methods

The present study was conducted
in the Research Far m and Seed
Testing Laboratory of Department
of Seed Science and Technology,

CCSHAU, Hisar during the season

of kharif 2005. The moongbean
(Vigna radiate. (L.) Wilezee), (cv.c.
Asha) crop was harvested at maturity, and sun-dried up to a moisture
content of 10.5 percent. The dried
pods were then threshed using three
types of threshers having three
types of threshing cylinders, viz.
hammer mill (Hadamba thresher),
spike tooth (Hadamba thresher) and
raspbar (axial flow thresher). Three
levels of cylinder speed (400, 450,
500 rpm) and three levels of concave clearance (5, 10, 15 mm) with
three replications were selected.

Every care was taken to ensure constant feed rate. The threshed seeds
were collected from the main outlet
of thresher. The parameters for cylinder performance and seed quality,
viz. seed damage (%), threshing efficiency (%), standard germination
(%) and electrical conductivity (ms)
were determined with each run.

Results and Discussion

Effect on Seed Damage
Seed damage increased with the
increase in cylinder speed and de-

Fig. 1 Effect of cylinder speed and concave clearance on seed damage

Seed damage, %
14

5 mm, concave clearance

10 mm, concave clearance
15 mm, concave clearance

12
10
8

Raspbar cylinder
6
4
2

Hammermill cylinder

Spike tooth cylinder

0
400

450

500

400

450
500
Cylinder speed, rpm

400

450

500

Fig. 2 Effect of cylinder speed and concave clearance on threshing efficiency

Threshing efficiency, %
99
97
95
93
5 mm, concave clearance
10 mm, concave clearance
15 mm, concave clearance

91
89

Hammermill cylinder

Spike tooth cylinder

Raspbar cylinder

87
1

52

6
7
Cylinder speed, rpm

10

11

AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION IN ASIA, AFRICA, AND LATIN AMERICA 2008 VOL.39 NO.4

creased concave clearance in all the

three types of threshing cylinders.
The data in Fig. 1 revealed a significant effect on extent of damage
to the seed. The minimum seed
damage (1.1 %) was observed with
a cylinder speed of 400 rpm and
concave clearance of 15 mm when
the threshing was done with a raspbar cylinder. A maximum damage
of 13.5 % and 13 % was obtained
with a higher cylinder speed of 500
rpm and concave clearance of 5 mm
when threshing was done by hammermill and spike tooth cylinder,
respectively. The higher seed dam-

age at higher speed may be due to

the increased effect of impact and
rubbing force at higher speed (Neeaj
and Singh, 1998). The results confirmed with the findings of Anwar
et al., 1991.
Effect on Threshing Efficiency
Threshing efficiency was maximum (99 %) with the use of spike
tooth threshing cylinder at a cylinder speed of 500 rpm and concave
clearance of 5 mm; however, the
seed damage was maximum (13 %)
at this cylinder speed and concave
clearance. At higher threshing ef-

ficiency, the seed damage was also

higher. The rubbing effect between
cylinder and concave was also reduced which resulted in minimum
seed damage and poor threshing
efficiency. The threshing efficiency
decreased with decreasing cylinder
speed from 500 to 400 rpm and
increasing the concave clearance
from 5 to 15 mm (Fig. 2). This may
be due to the resistance of pods, as
well as decrease in impact force and
frictional force.
Effect on Standard Germination
The standard germination was

Fig. 3 Effect of cylinder speed and concave clearance on germination

Germination, %
90

5 mm, concave clearance

10 mm, concave clearance
15 mm, concave clearance

85

80

75

Hammermill cylinder

Spike tooth cylinder

Raspbar cylinder

70
400

450

500

400

450
500
Cylinder speed, rpm

400

450

500

Fig. 4 Effect of cylinder speed and concave clearance on electrical conductivity

Electrical conductivity, ms
1.8

5 mm, concave clearance

10 mm, concave clearance
15 mm, concave clearance

1.6

1.4

1.2

1.0

Hammermill cylinder

Spike tooth cylinder

Raspbar cylinder

0.8
400

450

500

400

450
500
Cylinder speed, rpm

VOL.39 NO.4 2008 AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION IN ASIA, AFRICA, AND LATIN AMERICA

400

450

500

53

maximum (89 %) at higher concave clearance (15 mm) and lower

cylinder speed (400 rpm) when the
spike tooth cylinder was used. It
decreased to 72 % as cylinder speed
increased from 400 to 500 rpm with
concave clearance of 5 mm with the
use of hammermill threshing cylinders. The results shown in Fig. 3 revealed that the standard germination
was on a decreasing trend with the
increase in both cylinder speed (400
to 500 rpm) and concave clearance
(5 to 15 mm) in all the three types of
threshing cylinders. The minimum
seed damage and maximum germination was found under low cylinder
speed and high concave clearance,
which could be attributed to the
reduced impact force to detach the
seed from the pod that resulted into
poor threshing efficiency (Sinha and
Pandita, 2002).
Effect on Electrical Conductivity
The seed leachate electrical conductivity increased as the cylinder
speed increased and concave clearances decreased in the rasp bar type
cylinder (Fig. 4). The reduction in
seed leachate (electrical conductivity) with increase of concave clearance may be because, at higher con-

54

cave clearance, the rubbing effect

was reduced, which resulted in less
invisible seed damage that resulted
in low seed leachate (electrical conductivity).

minimum electrical conductivity

(1.02 ms) was observed under lower
cylinder speed (400 rpm) and higher
concave clearance (15 mm).

REFERENCES
Conclusions
The optimum combination for
different independent variables, viz.
threshing cylinder, cylinder speed
and concave clearance for minimum
seed damage and maximum percent germination are represented in
Table 1. Hence, it can be concluded
that the minimum seed damage (1.1
%) and maximum germination (89
%) was found under lower cylinder
speed (400 rpm) and higher concave
clearance (15 mm) which resulted
into less threshing efficiency (91.5
%) with the use of a raspbar threshing cylinder. In the spike tooth
threshing cylinder, minimum seed
damage (3.6 %), maximum germination (87 %) and minimum electrical conductivity (1.06 ms) was found
under lower cylinder speed (400
rpm) and higher concave clearance
(15 mm). In the hammermill cylinder, minimum seed damage (3.8 %),
maximum germination (86 %) and

Anwar, M. Tahir, Abdul Waheed

and Nadeem Amjad. 1991. Development and field performance of
a chickpea thresher. AMA 22(3):
73-78
Jagadish, G. V. and K. G. Shambulingappa. 1984. Relationship
between seed damage and germinability in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). Seeds & Farms
10(6): 25-27
Kamble, H.G. and J. S. Panwar.
1984. Studies on machine crop
variables for threshing of moong.
J. Agric. Engg. Res. 21(4): 1-7
Neeraj and Bachchan Singh. 1998.
Performance and evaluation of
pigeon pea threshing mechanism,
J.Agric. Engg, ISAE. 25 (4) 9-17
Sinha, J. P. and V. K. Pandita. 2002.
Effect of threshing methods on
seed damage, germinability and
seedling vigour in okra. Seed Res.
30(1): 161-163

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