Performance Evaluation of Engine Operated Faba Bean Threshing Machine

People all over the world use faba beans, a highly valued legume crop with a high protein content, as a source of protein. Despite being a traditional process, threshing is a crop that provides food and feed and has numerous economic benefits for the farming people in Ethiopia's highlands. Even though Ethiopia produces a lot of faba beans, threshing is still done by hand or using traditional methods. The traditional threshing technique for faba beans is time-consuming, tedious, and vulnerable to contamination, waste, and grain or seed damage. The Faba bean thresher was evaluated and tested in terms of threshing capacity, threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, and mechanical damage. A diesel engine-powered faba bean threshing thresher was created, built, tested, and assessed in order to address these issues. Conducted at three different concave clearances (25, 30, and 35mm), feed rates (8, 12, and 16kg/min), and cylinder speeds (400, 450, and 500rpm). The factorial, split-split-plot design was the experimental setup used. With a cylinder speed of 500rpm, concave clearance of 35mm, and a feeding rate of 16kg/min, the maximum threshing capacity of 625.54kg/h was achieved. Concave clearing had a greater influence on the threshing efficiency and the proportion of un-threshed grain than other variables. A maximum threshing efficiency of 96.67% was attained with a concave clearance of 25mm and a cylinder speed of 400rpm. A cylinder speed of 500rpm and a concave clearance of 25mm produced the highest cleaning efficiency of 95.00%. At a feeding rate of 16kg/min, a concave clearance of 25mm, and a cylinder speed of 500rpm, the maximum mechanical damage of 6.13% was observed.