Design and Development of Table-top Low

Capacity Pearl Millet Grader

Synopsis Submitted By :
Sanjana Gautam
( E.No. : 23AG63R37 )

Under the Guidance of :

Prof. P. Srinivasa Rao

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1. Introduction

Millets are small-seeded, round shape cereals belong to the Poaceae family. They are one of the
major cereal grains consumed worldwide, especially in arid and semi-arid areas of Africa and
Asia (India and China) and are of great interest because of their high nutritive value and agro-
industrial importance (Yousaf et al.2021). ). Millets are classified into three types on the basis of
their grain size. Major millets i.e. Sorghum (Jowar), Pearl (Bajra), Finger (Ragi/Mandua) millet,
Minor millets i.e. Foxtail (Kangi/Kakum), Kodo (Kodon), Barnyard (Sanwa), little (Kutki) and
AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
Proso (Cheena) millet. Pseudo millets i.e. Amaranth (Ramdana), Buckwheat (kuttu) millet
(Sanjay etINDIAN INSTITUTE
al., 2022). These OF TECHNOLOGY
have high protein content (10–12.3 g/100 KHARAGPUR
g), fat (1% to 5%), iron
(0.5–19.0 mg) and calcium (10–410 mg) which provide comprehensive nutrition and immunity
KHARAGPUR, WEST BENGAL
building (Jena et al., 2023). The presence of foreign matter in grains increases the bulk weight
APRILand
and volume thereby increasing the cost of handling 2024
transportation. Contaminants cause high
losses during storage, lowers grain standards and market value. Agricultural processing
operations such as cleaning (winnowing), grading, de-stoning and polishing are done to achieve
good quality grains(Yayock & Ishaya, 2020). Senthil et al. (2020) described the grading as the
elimination of non-seed materials, foreign seeds, and low-quality seeds of the same species.

According to Sarthak et al., 2023, grain grading can be done either mechanically or
manually, using morphological features such as size, weight, and colour. Potts (1975) various
seed separators on the basis of various physical properties of seed. Some of them are Air-Screen
Cleaner, Indented Cylinder, Disc Separator (on the basis of size of seed); Gravity Separator,
Aspirator, Air Screen Cleaner(on the basis of weight of the seed); Roll Mill, Magnetic Separator,
Vibrating Separator(on the basis of surface texture); Spiral Separator, Roll Mill (on the basis of
shape); Colour Sorter(on the basis of colour).

2. Review of Literature :

Yayock et al., (2020) designed a multi-grain cleaning and grading machine consisting of a
frame, hopper, shaft, belt, pulley, power unit, fan, fan housing, and sieve. Sorghum with
geometric mean diameter of 4.09mm and 7.89% mc (db) was taken.. The first sieves, 6mm holes
diameter, is inclined at an angle of 8° while the second sieve, with 4mm holes diameter, is

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inclined at 12° in a reverse direction. The sieve chamber oscillates at amplitudes created by the
crank. The results for grading efficiency shows that the efficiency of grade A(> 4 mm) grains
ranged between 70.19 and 78.68 %, while the grade B(< 4mm) grains ranged between 69.09 and
77.04 %. The optimum performance of the machine in cleaning and grading of Sorghum was
achieved at feed rate of 1200kg/hr., 4.5m/s air speed .

Usman &Khizerazam (2020) designed a high-productivity grain grading machine with four
stages of decreasing hole diameter sieves and a light air blower. Operation and feed cleaning
efficiency ranged between 80-85%, with an overall power consumption of 0.5 units of electricity
per hour per cycle.

Ojediran et al. (2019) developed a motorized rice grader using three screens of decreasing
diameters inclined at angles ranging from 6° to 16° in order to have gravity inward flow grain
across the screen. A 5 hp motor drove the screens, causing agitation, and a pneumatic mechanism
blew away light chaff material. Head milled rice is collected on the head rice outlet while the
broken rice grain is collected in the broken milled rice outlet. The machine achieved a Grading
Efficiency of 91.67% and Product Purity of 90.97% at a 5 mm Feed Gate Orifice.

Sundaram et al. (2014) designed a pedal-operated makhana grader with a crank speed of 45
rpm, a sieve angle of 15°, and a capacity of 700-750 kg/hr. . The sieve units with dimension of
(915*640*102) mm comprise of four different mesh size. The sieves were fixed at an inclined
position of 15°. The result indicated that the selected mesh holes have diameter of 12.13, 10.86,
8.84, and 7.39 mm were chosen according to the measured physical and mechanical properties of
seeds. At lesser angle, the makhana seeds itself clogged the holes of the sieves.

Ambrose et al.(2017) did the performance on ‘Millet De-stoner’ which consists of deck of sieve
of size 450 x 800 mm, made of perforated sheet, separation with provision to adjust the
inclination of the deck and outlet for cleaned grain and stones, an aspirator with centrifugal
blower for removing light weight impurities, oscillating sieve box made of wood, 700 x 1000
mm size to hold two sieves with sieve changing provision. It operates by 1 hp single phase
electric motor. Its output capacity was found to be 230 kg/h and 233 kg/h for little and foxtail
millet respectively with a cleaning efficiency of 89 and 90% respectively.

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Karthikeyan et. al. (2018) graded little millet using three ieve grader having dimensions: top
ieve = 2.20-2.40 mm; middle ieve = 1.35-1.46mm & bottom ieve = 0.80-1.00 mm. Grain grading
proportions obtained were : Large size grain were 10% of the total grain (by weight) retained on
1st ieve; Medium sized grain: 75-80% of total grain retained on middle ieve; Small size grain =
10% of total grain retained on 3 rd ieve. In this three decker grader, 75 to 80% of medium size
grain obtained are of good quality grains.

Mohamed et. al. (2022) Designed a small-scale wheat cleaning machine. Experiments were
carried out at three levels of sieve slopes (5, 10, and 15°). The results showed that the use of
either a very low, or a very high sieve slope angle and sieve reciprocating speed while using
different air velocities and feed rates is not recommended.

3. Objectives

1) To design and develop a table top pearl millet grader.

2) To evaluate the performance of the developed grader .

3) To study the effect of eccentric system for the enhancement of separation efficiency..

4. Materials and Methods

Machine components : Hopper, Feed gate, Driving and driven assembly, Screen/sieve,
Eccentric Mechanism, Outlets.

Engineering Properties of Pearl Millet : Source : Prakash et al. (2019)

Properties Avg. Value

GMD (mm) 2.54

Size( Length, Width, Thickness) (mm) 3.08, 2.52, 2.67

Bulk Density (kg/m3) 769.7

Particle Density (kg/m3) 1265.57

Angle of repose(degree) (28.83-33.57)°

Volume of single grain (mm3) 7.07

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Objective 1: To design and develop a table-top pearl millet grader.

1. Hopper : A trapezoidal hopper having capacity of 3 kg -5 kg will be used. The discharge

angle will be more than angle of repose of pearl millet for proper discharge of millet. Ojediran et
al. (2019) have calculated total volume of hopper is as follows :

Area of the square section = L2.

Volume of the ccuboidr section = L× B × H

Volume of the pyramidal section = 1/3 × base area × height

Volume of hopper = Volume of trapezoidal section + Volume of cuboid section

2. Feed Gate : It will consist of durable frames with slide plates that open and close against the
flow of the grain. The feed gate will be sliding type having base equal to the base of hopper.

3. Screen type : The screen can be woven wire mesh or perforated metal sheet. The holes of the
screen can be round, oval or triangular depending upon the shape of the polished pearl millet.
According to Ojediran et al.(2019), the screen is characterized by parameters such as shape, the
effective size of the opening diameter D and the coefficient of opening “C o ”. For
circular/oblong opening:

Where, D diameter of the opening (mm); d distance between the two successive holes (mm).

4. Eccentric Movement : This is the unit responsible for the vibration of screens. According to
the motion to be provided, it can be horizontal or vertical or oscillating type. The speed of
eccentric shaft can be determined using the eq. given by Khurmi and Gupta (2007) :

N1 D1 = N2 D2

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 Where, N1 = speed of the driving pulley ; D 1 = diameter of the driving pulley; N 2 = speed of
the driven pulley; and D2 diameter of the driven pulley.

5. Determination of Amplitude and frequency of vibration : For a system of forced vibration

with a single degree of freedom, the amplitude is as below (Ojediran et al., 2018).

Y = F/K

( 1 – (w/wn)2)2 + (2ε(w/wn)2)0.5

Where, F magnitude of excitation (N); K stiffness of spring (Nm -1 ); m mass of the system (kg),
ε = coefficient of damping (Nsm -1); ω = frequency of excitation force, 2πN/ 60 (rads -1 ); and wn =
natural frequency of vibration (rads-1)

Objective 2: To evaluate the performance of the developed grader and its economic
feasibility.

On varying the independent variables at different parameters, what will be the effect on the
machine efficiency and losses will be evaluated.

Independent Variables : Feed Rate, Screen Type and Size, Inclination

Responses: Grading Efficiency, Losses, Grading Efficiency, Through Capacity

Performance Evaluation :

1. Grading efficiency: The grading efficiency is the grains retained over the screen
surfaces.

Where, η=grading efficiency, %; Go = weight of grains retained over screen by manual

sieving with same screen size (kg), and Gp = weight of grains that passed through screen
by sieving manually (kg)

2. Percentage of scatter loss: This refers to all the grains that got scattered around the
machine during operation.

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 Where, Sc = percentage of scatter loss (%), Ql = quantity of grains scattered around the
machine (kg), and Qt = quantity of grains fed into the machine (kg).

3. Determination of throughput capacity :

Here, Q is quantity of polished millet introduced in the hopper (kg); T is time required for
operation (s), C is throughput capacity of grader.

6. Conclusion

I. Due to small size, light weight , less density, millet grading still remains an unlikely
operation. The farmers take their grains (millets) to the market in poor grades and
low quality standards. Due to this, the price is determined more by locals rather
than a national factor.
II. The use of millet grading machine would be important to the small and medium
millet producers and small scale millet processors, as it will add value to their
products and increase the market prices.
III. A Table-top low capacity polished pearl millet grader is aimed to design.
IV. The machine design will be on the basis of size of the pearl millet.
V. The optimum parameters suitable for good quality millet grades at appreciable
throughput capacity and less grain losses or wastes is aimed to obtain.
VI. Performance evaluation will be done by varying several optimizing parameters and
the effect of these parameters on the grader performance will be evaluated.

7. References

• Ambrose, D. C., Annamalai, S. J. K., Naik, R., Dubey, A. K., & Chakraborthy, S. (2017).
Performance studies on millet processing machinery for tribal livelihood

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 promotion. Journal of Applied and Natural Science, 9(3), 1796-180.
• Ghani,U., Khizerazam, (2020). Design and Fabrication of high productive grain grading
machine. International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering Research
and Development.Vol.10, Issue 2, 1255-1266.
• Jena, Anuraag, Vishal Sharma, and Usha Dutta. "Millets as superfoods: Let thy cereal be
thy medicine." Indian Journal of Gastroenterology 42.3 (2023): 304-307.
• Karthikeyan,M., Dwijendra,N.G., Saravanan,P., Community scale Small Millet Processing: A
Training Manual, pp.18-19.
• Mohamed,A.A., Eid,A.E., Gamal,E.,(2022). Design and Assesment of small scale machine for
cleaning wheat grains. Acta Technologies Agriculture, pp. 13-19.
• Ojediran, J. O., Okonkwo, C. E., Alake, S. A., Alhassan, E. A., & Olayanju, A. T. (2020).
Design, development and evaluation of a motorized rice grader. Journal of food
process engineering, 43(2), e13336.
• Potts, H. C., "Principles of Seed Separation" (1975). Proceedings of the Short Course for
Seedsmen.
• Prakash, O. M., Jha, S. K., Kar, A., Sinha, J. P., Satyavathi, C. T., & Iquebal, M. A.
(2019). Physical properties of pearl millet grain.
• Sanjay, A. N., Basarkar, G., & Buchake, V. (2022). Millets: An overview-A
treatise on healthy option in daily diet. Journal of Pharmacognosy and
Phytochemistry, 11(3), 177-185.
• Sarthak,R.D., Borikar,Y.R., Mahantare,P.V.,(2023). An effective study on grain grading
machine, Department of mechanical engineering.
• Sundaram, P. K., Sarkar, B., & Mondal, S. (2014). Design and performance evaluation of
pedal operated Makhana (Euryale ferox Salisb) seed grader. Research Journal of
Agricultural Sciences, 5(3), 428-431.
• Yayock, E. S., & Ishaya, J. (2020). Development and performance evaluation of a grain
grading machine for small and medium scale farmers. IOSR Journal of Agriculture
and Veterinary Science (IOSR-JAVS), 13(10), 33-40.
• Yousaf, L., Hou, D., Liaqat, H., & Shen, Q. (2021). Millet: A review of its nutritional and
functional changes during processing. Food Research International, 142, 110197).

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