• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 1980

Threshing operation may be one of the most important processes in the paddy post-production system as far as the grain loss and labor requirement are concerned . head-feeding type threshers commercially available now in Korea originally were developed for threshing dry paddy in the range of 15 to 17 % in wet basis. However, threshing wet-paddy with the grain moisture content above 20 % has been strongly recommended, especially for new high-yielding Indica -type varieties ; (1) to reduce high grain loss incurred due to the handling operations, and (2) to prevent the quantitative and qualitative loss of milled -rice when unthreshed grains are rewetted due to the rainfall. The objective of this study were to investigate the adaptability of both a head-feeding type thresher and a throw-in type thresher to wet-paddy , and to find out the possiblilities of improving the components of these threshers threshing. Four varieties, Suweon 264 and Milyang 24 as Tongil sister line varieties, minehikari and Jinhueng as Japonica-type varieties, were used at the different levels of the moisture content of grains. Both the feed rate and the cylinder speed were varied for each material and each machine. The thresher output quality , composition of tailing return, and separating loss were analyzed from the sampels taken at each treatment. A separate experiment for measurement opf the power requirement of the head-feeding type thresher was also performed. The results are summarized as follows : 1. There was a difference in the thresher output quality between rice varieties. In case of wet-paddy threshing at 550 rpm , grains with branchlet and torn heads for the Suweon 264 were 12 % and 7 % of the total output in weight, respectively, and for the Minehikari 4.5 % and 2 % respectively. In case of dry paddy threshing , those for the Suweon 264 were 8 % and 5% , and for the Minehikari 4% and 1% respectively. However, those for the Milyang 23 , which is highly susceptable to shattering, were much lower with 1 % and 0.5% respectively, regardless of the moisture content of the paddy. Therefore, it is desirable to breed rice varieties of the same physical properties as well as to improve a thresher adaptable to all the varieties. Torn heads, which increased with the moisture content of rall the varieties except the Milyang 23 , decreased as the cylinder speed increased, but grains with branchlet didnt decrease. The damaged kernels increased with the cylinder speed. 3. The thresher output quality was not affected much by the feed rate. But grains with branchlet and torn heads increased slightly with the feed rate for the head-feeding type thresher since higher resistance lowered at the cylinder speed. 4. In order to reduce grains with branchlet and torn heads in wet-paddy threshing , it is desirable to improve the head-feeding type thresher by developing a new type of cylinder which to not give excess impact on kernels or a concave which has differenct sizes of holes at different locations along the cylinder. 5. For the head-feeding type thresher, there was a difference in separating loss between the varieties. At the cylinder speed of 600 rpm the separating losses for the Minehikari and the Suweon 264 were 1.2% and 0.6% respectively. The separating loss of the head-feeding type thresher was not affected by the moisture content of paddy while that of the Mini-aged thresher increased with the moisture content. 6. From the analysis of the tailings return , to appeared that the tailings return mechanism didn't function properly because lots of single grains and rubbishes were unnecessarily returned. 7. Adding a vibrating sieve to the head-feeding type thresher could increase the efficiency of separation. Consequently , the tailing return mechanism would function properly since unnecessary return could be educed greatly. 8. The power required for the head-feeding type thresher was not affected by the moisture content of paddy, but the average power increased linearly with the feed rate. The power also increased with the cylinder speed.