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Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine 0
Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine
Researchers:-
1. Mesay Alemu (MSc)
2. Getachew Shunk (MSc)
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY JIMMA
UNIVERSITY
July, 2013
Principal Writer Institute coordinator for Research, P,
GS&C
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Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine 1
Contents 1. Executive summary of the project
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2. Background and Justification
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3. Objectives of the project
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4. Review of literature
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5. Materials and Methods
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6. Expected output/outcome
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7. Time schedule
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8. Duration
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9. Facilities and funding
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10. Budget
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11. References
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Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine 2
1. Executive summary of the project
Teff is the principal food source of the majority of the
Ethiopian population. This makes Teff to be one of the important
cereals at global level presently and for the future. Despite these
facts, the production of Teff in Ethiopia has been in an extremely
traditional way for centuries. This research project focuses on
designing and manufacturing of a portable and small scale (that can
replace 120 persons) Teff harvesting machine that is cost-wise
affordable by the local community. The main objective of the
project is improving the traditional Teff harvesting process by
making our farmers beneficiary of a harvesting machine that saves
energy, time and money and helps them in increasing the harvesting
efficiency.
2. Background and Justification
Ethiopia is one of the countries with agriculture as a backbone
of their economy. The majority of the export products come from
agriculture. It accounts for about 80% employment of the
population.
Figure 1 Teff Plant
Teff is among the plenty crops grown in the country and it has
been the principal ingredient in the diet of the population. It
accounts for about two-third of the daily protein intake in the
diet of the Ethiopian population (Ethiopian Nutrition Survey,
1959). A number of wheat and barley harvesting machines have been
existed for quite a long time but they have not been suitable for
teff harvesting . The progress in improvement work on teff has not
been developed as on other major cereals consumed in the
worldwide.This is mainly due to the fact that teff is originated
and mostly consumed only in Ethiopia. Even also in Ethiopia
researches are not done on the teff harvesting yet. Despite being
more important cereal in Ethiopia, teff harvesting is highly
traditional. Farming is based on small scale fragmented pieces
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Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine 3
of land. It is oriented to satisfy family level needs due to
lack of farm machinery that fit with framers economy.
Like for any other crop, the production processes, Figure 2, of
Teff in Ethiopia are extremely traditional and, hence, very
tedious, time consuming and less efficient. Among these tiresome
production processes is the harvesting.
Figure 2 Main Teff Production Processes Traditional harvesting
is carried out by grasping the Teff plants in one hand and cutting
them with the sickle near the base of the plant, Figure 3.
Researches indicate that eight to twelve people can harvest Teff
on land of about 2000-2500 m2 in one working day (Alemayehu Refera,
2001). This is extremely small area and makes the farmers to waste
long time for harvesting. The long harvesting time, in turn, makes
the Teff production susceptible to wastage aggravating the low life
standard of our farmers.
In general, the traditional production process has lots of
drawback.
Production is very tedious and it makes the lives of our farmers
extremely boring. It takes long time to work on a very small land
area. There are lots of loss through each process which results in
less efficient production.
Consequently, farmers produce less product enough only for their
anual consumption and there will be scarecity of cereals in market.
This in turn makes the cereals to be expensive. To overcome these
problems, the majority of the population will be forced to remain
farmers. This has a nagative impact on the new generation also as
children are supposed to help their farmer families and will be
obliged no to go to school. The collective effect of this is that
the transition from agriculture driven economy to industry based
economy of the country will be delayed.
Figure 3 Traditional Teff Harvesting in Ethiopia
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Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine 4
Then as citizens of the country and specifically as machanical
engineers, we planned to contribute towards the activities of
improving the life standards of our farmers through research and
development. Our present research project focuses on aiding Teff
harvesting process of our farmers by a machine that can replace
about 120 persons. The main task is to design, test, manufacture
and communicate to stake holders a small scale and less costly Teff
harvesting machine.
3. Objectives of the project
The main objective of this research is to design and manufacture
a small scale and less costly Teff harvesting machine in order to
improve the traditional harvesting process. Specific objectives of
the project:
Improve the boring life of our farmers that is brought about by
the time and energy intensive Teff harvesting process.
Improve the efficiency of Teff production (increase
productivity). To overcome the traditional methods of teff mowing
for long years lied in our
country.
To incorporate teff harvesting machine in agricultural sector
with aim of increasing
agricultural industry in Ethiopia.
Reduce cost of teff for society by reducing the effort and loss
during teff harvesting
Developing new mechanism especial for teff harvesting that easy
manufactured in
local industry
Testing the mechanism of new machine that will be produced from
exist materials
Modeling and simulation of the analysis.
4. Review of literature
Ethiopia, a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa, is located
at 8.0 N and 38.0 E (The World Fact Book 2002). The altitude of
Ethiopia on average is about 2000 m above sea level. This is a more
appropriate environment for maximum Teff production. The total land
area of the country is 1.1 million km2 and m o r e than 80% of the
Ethiopian population is dependent on agriculture where c r o p
production plays a significant role (Bureau of African Affairs,
2006). Agriculture contributes to 47% of the countrys GDP and
contribution of teff products to the agricultural economy is
increasing from time to time. The country has long-standing history
with traditional agricultural and a reasonably good resource
potential for development of agro-industries. Teff is a very
important crop in Ethiopia. Its production exceeds that of most
other cereals. Each year, Ethiopian farmers plant almost 1.4
million hectares of Teff and they produce 0.9 million tons of grain
or about a quarter of the country's total cereals (Lost Crops of
Africa: Volume I: Grains, 1996). Researches indicate that Teff has
long been produced for food in other countries like Yemen, Kenya,
Malawi, and India. Also, the plant is widely grown as forage for
grazing animals in South Africa and Australia.
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Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine 5
Commercial production of Teff has begun in both the United
States and South Africa, and international markets are opening up.
There are different types of mechanical harvesting tools, suitable
for crops harvesting with
their limitations as mentioned below.
A. Serrated blade sickle
It has a serrated curved blade and a wooden handle. The handle
of improved sickle has a bend at
the rear for better grip and to avoid hand injury during
operation. Serrated blade
Figure 3 Serrated blade sickle B. Reapers
Reapers are used for harvesting of crops mostly at ground level.
It consists of crop-row-divider,
cutter bar assembly, feeding and conveying devices.
Reapers are classified on the basis of conveying of crops as
given below:
1. Vertical conveying reaper windrower
It consists of crop row divider, star wheel, cutter bar, and a
pair of lugged canvas conveyor belts.
This type of machines cut the crops and conveys vertically to
one end and windrows the crops on
the ground uniformly. Collection of crop for making bundles is
easy and it is done manually.
Self-propelled walking type, self-propelled riding type and
tractor mounted type reaper
windrowers are available. These types of reapers are suitable
for crops like wheat and rice.
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Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine 6
Figure 4 Vertical conveying reaper windrower 2. Horizontal
conveying reapers
This type of reapers are provided with crop dividers at the end
cutter bar (crop gathering reel)
and horizontal conveyor belt.
They cut the crop, convey the crop horizontally to one end and
drop it to the ground in head-tail
fashion. Collection of crop for making bundles is difficult.
This type of reapers is tractor
mounted and suitable for wheat, rice, soybean, and gram.
3. Bunch conveying reapers
This type of reapers are similar to horizontal conveying reapers
except that the cut crop is
collected on a platform and is being released occasionally to
the ground in the form of a bunch
by actuating a hand lever. Here, collection of crops for making
bundles is difficult. The cutting
unit of this type of reapers may be disc type or cutter bar
type. After cutting, the crop is
conveyed vertically to the binding mechanism and released to the
ground in the form of bundles.
Reaper binders are suitable for rice and wheat.
Figure 5 Bunch type Reaper
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Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine 7
4.Combines
Various designs of combine harvester having 2 to 6m long cutter
bar are commercially available.
The function of a combine harvester is to cut, thresh, winnow
and clean grain/seed. It consists of header unit, threshing unit,
separation unit, cleaning unit and grain collection unit. The
function of the header is to cut and gather the crop and deliver it
to the threshing cylinder. The reel pushes the straw back on to the
platform while the cutter bar cuts it. The crops are threshed
between cylinder and concave due to impact and rubbing action. The
threshed material is shaken and tossed back by the straw rack so
that the grain moves and falls through the openings in the rack
onto the cleaning shoe while the straw is discharged at the rear.
The cleaning mechanism consists of two sieves and a fan. The grain
is conveyed with a conveyor and collected in a grain tank.
Figure 6 Combined Harvester
The biggest problem with Teff harvesting is related to the fact
that it lies on the ground after getting ripe. Therefore, the
market available reaping machines are not suitable for harvesting
Teff. They are suitable only for standing crops like Barley, Wheat
and others. To the best of our knowledge (as has been tried to scan
literatures), the presence of any Teff harvesting machines in
Ethiopia (either manufactured or imported) has not been reported to
the date. Even those Teff harvesting machines available abroad are
used to harvest teff while it is standing (before the crop gets
ripe). The Teff obtained here is used for forage. Therefore, this
project aims at designing and manufacturing a Teff harvesting
machine suitable for reaping the lying crop and put it in an
orderly manner so that the crop will dry properly.
5. Materials and Methods
To achieve the objectives mentioned, the following methodologies
will be followed. 1. Collecting data necessary for the design
analysis from field.
2. Conceptual design of different alternative mechanisms will be
made.
3. Detail design of components will be made.
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Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine 8
4. Elements outline design will be made; the best elements and
the best mechanism will be
chosen
5. Animation and simulation of static and dynamic analysis to
validate the components by
using soldwork and ANSYS software.
6. Material is selection based on analysis result.
7. Calculating the power that required for the machine.
8. Performing Engineering judgment on the size obtained.
9. Purchasing the equipments as per the specification
10. Once the required components purchased and then manufactured
at mechanical
engineering workshop at Jimma University, disseminate to the
community.
6. Expected output/outcome
The following outputs/outcomes are anticipated after completion
of the project.
Saving in the time and energy of farmers during harvesting.
Increased productivity. Comfortable harvesting. Reduced number of
persons involved in harvesting. Reduced loss of grain due to fast
harvesting during bad season. Reduced gap in the area of locally
manufacturing machineries.
According to the information from agricultural office and
experience we have, it requires 50 laborers to reap 1 hectare of
land covered by a teff per day (8hrs). It is anticipated that the
teff harvesting machine travels 3km per hour. The blade of the teff
cutter is 1m wide. Therefore, it can be collected 3000mX1m = 3000m2
area of land covered by teff per her. The teff can reap for about
8hrs per day. i.e. 3000m2x8 = 24000m2. Therefore, the teff
harvesting machine can cover an area of farm land equivalent to 120
laborers per day. The minimum payments for one labour 50 birr per
day then 120 labours 50x120=6000 birr per day have to pay 24000
areas of land to cover but harvesting machine for fuel expenditure
maximum 43.20 birr per day to cover 24000m2 areas.
7. Time schedule
S.No Activity Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 Detailed Design and Simulation 2 Material Procurement 3
Fabrication and Assembly 4 Testing and Correcting Shortcomings 5
Communicating to the Community 6 Preparing Report
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Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine 9
8. Duration
The project duration is nine months beginning in October.
9. Facilities and funding
Jimma University with its unique community based education
viewpoint encourages research activities. As a pioneer research
oriented department of our institute, the mechanical engineering
department will hopefully allow us to use all the machineries
available to undertake the research, especially in manufacturing
the necessary components. Most of the components of the machines
can be manufactured in the workshop of our department; generator
and few components will be purchased.
10. Budget
TRAVEL COSTS (Data collection, purchase the equipments, per-diem
and load/unload)
Number of persons
Distance Type of transport
Total cost of Transportation (Birr)
Five A.A & Jimma Land 4000
Personnel costs
Task Qualification Number of Personnel
Payment/day (Birr)
No of days Total (Birr)
Designers MSc 2 210 20 8400 Manufacturer Technical 2 100 25
5000
Total 13400
Stationary
S.No Items Total (Birr) 1 Stationary Cost Paper, Pen,
Pencil, Photocopy , flash Disk, and etc.
1200
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Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine 10
Cost Analysis of Materials, Equipment and Supplies
S.No Material type Estimated Size Quantity Unit Cost (birr)
Cost(birr)
1 Sheet metal 2000*1000*4 3 800 2400 2 Sheet metal ----------- 1
600 600 3 Angle iron ------------- 2 350 700 4 shaft 2 1250 2500 5
Electrode ------------ 2 200 400 6 Metal plate ---------------- 3
1350 4050 7 Pulley ------------ 8 500 4000 8 Bevel gear
------------ 3 900 2700 9 Tube ------------ 1 400 400
10 Paint and rust resistance paint 2 150 300 11 Epoxy ----------
1 80 80 12 Rivets Do=4 1 packet 200 200 13 Metal Spring -----------
4 300 1200 14 Belt ----------- 10 180 1800 15 Tyre/ Wheell
----------- 4 3000 16 Conveyor Fiber material 1 1200 1200 17 Cast
iron ----------- 1 1500 1500 18 Bolt and nut ----------- ---- 800
800 19 Ball Bearings ------------- 4 250 1000
Total 28,830
Personnel and miscellaneous Cost + traveling cost +Fabrication
Cost (materials, equipment,
supplies) cost = 13400.00 + 1200.00 +4000.00 + 28830.00
=47430.00 Birr
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Mechanism Testing and Modeling of Teff Harvesting Machine 11
11. References
1. Anon. 1894. Tropical fodder grasses. Kew Bul. 95:378-380. 2.
Anon. 1887. Teff (Eragrostis abyssinica). Kew Bul. 1:2-6. 3.
Bekele, E. and R.N. Lester. 1981. Biochemical assessment of the
relationship
of Eragrostis tef (Zucc) Trotter with some wild Eragrostis
species (Gramineae). Ann. Bot. 48:717-725.
4. Bekele, E. 1985. A review of research on diseases of barley,
tef, and wheat in Ethiopia, p. 79-108. In: T. Abate (ed.). A review
of crop protection research in Ethiopia. Proc. First Ethiopian Crop
Prod. Symp. Dept. Crop Protection, Inst. Agr. Res., Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.
5. Berhe, T. and D.G. Miller. 1976. Sensitivity of tef
[Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] to removal of floral parts. Crop
Sci. 16:307-308
6. carts, Zimbabwe, 1992. John Palmer, Welding, Brazing, and
Soldering; Arc Welding of Stainless Steels, American Society for
Metals, Metals Park,
7. Kurt M.Marshek /Robert C.Juvinal, Fundamental of Machine
Component Design. USA,1995, 3rd edition.
8. R.S.khurmi and J.K.Gupta, A text Book of machine design,
India
Executive summary of the projectBackground and
JustificationObjectives of the projectReview of literatureMaterials
and MethodsExpected output/outcomeTime scheduleDurationFacilities
and fundingBudgetReferences