Design and Development of Cumin Destalker Machine

Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.), a seed spice of family umbelliferae, is valued as aromatic, preservative, flavoring, and therapeutic agent in the food and pharmaceutical industry. The quality standards of cumin are closely associated with processing techniques. A tiny stalk attached to cuminis one of the major quality concerns in threshed and cleaned product. To remove this stalk, a centrifugal type mechanical cumin destalking unit was developed and evaluated. Developed unit consists of a frame, vibratory feeding assembly and discharge chute, horizontal plate type destalking assembly, and a drive unit. Feed rate (30, 50, and 70 kg/h), clearance between the plates (5, 8, and 11 mm), and speed of plate (550, 750, and 950 rpm) were taken as study variables and the performance of the destalker was evaluated in terms of destalking efficiency and broken percentage (damage). Performance was evaluated under single-pass and multi-pass conditions and also with and without pre-drying. Best performance was observed when cumin was destalked under multi-pass mode with pre-drying at a feed rate of 50 kg/h and plate speed of 750 rpm. At optimum operation conditions, the machine was found to have a destalking efficiency of 82.03% with 10.88% damage

Development and evaluation of a battery operated ginger (Zingiber officinale) washer for small and marginal farmers

Not AvailableGinger (Zingiber ofcinale Rosc.) is a commercial crop grown for its aromatic rhizomes which is used both as a spice and medicine. Being a root crop and owing to its physical structure, ginger rhizomes contain heavy soil load which makes washing as an important and prime post-harvest operation. Manual washing of ginger is a laborious and time consuming process. An experiment was conducted at the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi during 2020 with an objective to develop a continuous rotary drum type battery operated ginger washer and to evaluate its performance.The machine consists of the frame, feeding and discharge chutes, rotary drum with internal ights, pressure pump and nozzle assembly, battery and a drive unit. The developed washer was evaluated at different feed rate and residence time to appraise the washing efciency, microbial washing efciency, bruise index and colour of washed ginger. Increase in feed rate signicantly reduced the washing and microbial efciencies but increased mechanical damage. Washing and microbial efciencies increased with increase in residence time.Signicant difference in the colour was found between washed and unwashed ginger.The best set of conditions under which the washer could be operated was 150 kg/h and 25 sec, at which the machine was found to have mechanical washing efciency of 92.48%, microbial washing efciency of 93.18% and 4.54% bruise index. Besides eliminating drudgery of washing operation, the developed washer was found to save time, water and operating cost as compared to manual washing.Not Availabl

Design and Development of Cumin Destalker Machine

705-711Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.), a seed spice of family umbelliferae, is valued as aromatic, preservative, flavoring, and therapeutic agent in the food and pharmaceutical industry. The quality standards of cumin are closely associated with processing techniques. A tiny stalk attached to cumin is one of the major quality concerns in threshed and cleaned product. To remove this stalk, a centrifugal type mechanical cumin destalking unit was developed and evaluated. Developed unit consists of a frame, vibratory feeding assembly and discharge chute, horizontal plate type destalking assembly, and a drive unit. Feed rate (30, 50, and 70 kg/h), clearance between the plates (5, 8, and 11 mm), and speed of plate (550, 750, and 950 rpm) were taken as study variables and the performance of the destalker was evaluated in terms of destalking efficiency and broken percentage (damage). Performance was evaluated under single-pass and multi-pass conditions and also with and without pre-drying. Best performance was observed when cumin was destalked under multi-pass mode with pre-drying at a feed rate of 50 kg/h and plate speed of 750 rpm. At optimum operation conditions, the machine was found to have a destalking efficiency of 82.03% with 10.88% damage