A LOCAL CORN SHELLER PERFORMANCE AS AFFECTED BY MOISTURE CONTENT AND MACHINE ROTATIONAL SPEED

Abstract

A local corn sheller was evaluated at different rotational speeds of (40, 60, 80, 100 and 120 rpm) and moisture contents of (12, 16 and 20%). The performance was evaluated in terms of sheller productivity, shelling efficiency, unshelled grains, grain damage, loose grains at kernel outlet, specific energy consumption and operational cost. Sheller productivity, shelling efficiency, and the percentage of unshelled grains ranged from 0.43 to 1.46 ton/h, from 94.25 to 99.43%, and from 0.57 to 5.75%, respectively. The percentage of grain damage and loose grains at kernel outlet ranged from 0.21 to 2.13%, from 1.57 to 25.15%, respectively. Meanwhile, specific energy consumption and operational cost ranged from 0.74 to 6.87 kW.h/ton and from 18.19 to 64.42 LE/ton, respectively. It was found that increasing the speed caused an increase in performance of shelling and the percentage of broken grains. It is concluded that corn having 12 % moisture content that fed to the sheller at rotational speed of 120 rpm gave the best performance of shelling.