Claims:1. An decorticator for chironji nut comprises:
- a motor mounted to supply power for rotation;
- an inlet means having a hopper and feed rate controller means;
- a vertical cylindrical casing having rotary impellers, stripped impacting device, impeller shaft, and concave surfaces;
- a plurality of cleaning and grading means;
- an outlet means for the material;
wherein angle of slotted tooth on top of impact device and concave surface is provided to one side grip and another side shear to remove the outer surface of cracked nuts;
wherein the nuts from the inlet means are pushed at a controlled speed from hopper to the cylindrical casing where they are moved by rotating impellers mounted on impeller shaft and fall onto the stationary concave surface covering 160o of said cylindrical casing, where the nut cracks due to the impacting force on the surface and is pushed to the another side of concave surface to remove the outer surface of nut by shearing action which are then passed through the plurality of sliding cleaning and grading means to separate the shell and kernels. `1

2. The decorticator for chironji nut as claimed in claim 1 further comprises of a rectangular base frame for mounting the decorticator.

3. The decorticator for chironji nut as claimed in claim 1, wherein the feed rate controller means comprises of a shaft gear arrangement having a handle.

4. The decorticator for chironji nut as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cylindrical casing is made of two semi cylinders.

5. The decorticator for chironji nut as claimed in claim 1, wherein the aspect ratio of the impeller is 0.4.

6. The decorticator for chironji nut as claimed in claim 1, wherein impeller pulley is mounted on impeller shaft.

7. The decorticator for chironji nut as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cleaning and grading means comprises of two oscillating sieves with slopes 30° and 20°.

8. The decorticator for chironji nut as claimed in claim 1, further comprises of a sieve shaker.

9. The decorticator for chironji nut as claimed in claim 1, wherein the concave surface has two axial square bars at 6mm gap.

10. The decorticator for chironji nut as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cylinder is fitted with a canvas strip as a cutting device.
, Description:TECHNICAL FIELD

The present subject matter described herein, in general relates to a nut shelling machine, and, more particularly, to the design of a decorticator machine for chironji nut (Buchanania lanzan).

BACKGROUND

Chironji (Buchanania lanzan) is a tree species which belongs to the Anacardiaceae family which is commercially very useful. This is found throughout India, Burma, and Nepal. The fruits of chironji mature in 4 to 5 months and are harvested manually in the month of April and May. The green colored skins of harvested chironji fruits turn black on storage which has to be removed before shelling. In order to remove the skin, fruits are usually soaked overnight in plain water and rubbed between palms or with a jute sack. The water containing fine skins and are decanted and washed with fresh water to obtain cleaned nuts. The cleaned nuts are then dried in sunlight and stored for further processing i.e., shelling. The dried nuts are shelled by rubbing with a stone-slab on a rough surface followed by manual separation of kernels.

The chironji nut has very good demand in foreign markets and thus, has become an important crop to earn foreign exchange. The government and private agencies have evinced keen interest in developing this as an industry, both by increasing its production as well as processing capacity. According to currently available information on manual shelling of chironji nuts, only 30 to 40% are recovered as whole kernels and the rest are in broken forms which are sold at a much lower price. The method followed is manual and shelling of chironji is very tedious and time consuming. Therefore, there is a need to develop a chironji nut decorticator to save time and reduce drudgery so that its decorticating efficiency is improved and better quality chironji kernel is obtained.

Similar nuts viz., cashew nut’s physical and engineering properties (like spherical shape, bulk density, porosity, angle of repose, hardness etc.) have been studied extensively by different researchers to design a cashew nut decorticator. Since, chironji nuts are similar to gorgon and cashew nuts, its shelling can also be done through the methods followed in gorgon and cashew nuts. In the Sturtevant system, roasted cashew nuts are thrown by centrifugal force on to a metal plate for shelling. It results in poor shelling efficiency. In the Oltmare system, well graded nuts are held by a nut-shaped blade and cut along a natural line. The capacity of shelling is very low because each nut has to be placed for cutting. In spite of these developments, shelling is still carried out manually by hitting the nut with a wooden hammer along its longitudinal axis. Average shelling capacity was reported to be 8 kg/day per worker, which consists of 36% whole kernels, 30% half-split kernels and 34% broken kernels. The shelling capacity of cashew nut sheller is 18 kg/hr with shelling efficiency of 70%, which gives 50% whole kernels, 22% half split and 28% broken kernels.

In prior art, US8776677 patent is disclosed an apparatus and method for the shelling of nuts such as chinquapins and chestnuts without substantially damaging the meat of the nuts. The nut shelling machine utilizes a combination of the inertia of the nut and a planar rotating cutting disc, such as one with a layer of aluminum oxide abrasive material, to cut the shell of the nut in a series of small cuts. The rotating abrasive disc utilizes the resistive inertia of the nuts to launch the nut in an upward direction and causing the nuts to fall onto the abrasive surface to repeatedly cut the shells. The repeated cutting action results in removal of a substantial amount of the shell in a short period of time while at the same time minimizing damage to the meat of the nut.

In prior art, US4231529 patent is disclosed an impact decorticator having a rotor, mounted for rotation about a substantially horizontal axis in a generally concentric and cylindrical casing. The casing is provided at the upper portion with an inlet opening and in the lower portion with an outlet opening for the material being processed and graded, substantially horizontally extending ripples are formed on the internal surface of the casing between the inlet and outlet openings (in the direction of rotor rotation), the ripples being graded in that they are spaced progressively closer together, become progressively sharper, become progressively deeper and/or approach more closely from the inlet toward a central zone between the inlet and outlet openings. However, the machine described in this prior art is one sided and contains extended ripples which is not centrally downward oriented. Further, no direct gravity discharge mechanism is found in the prior art document.

However, the conventional machines and methods are not effective for chironji nuts, as they either produce less whole kernels, more broken or are tedious and time consuming.

Therefore, there is a need to develop a mechanical chironji nut sheller or decorticator which is able to facilitate nut shelling and reduce the drudgery and improve the quality of the product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the present invention. It is not intended to identify the key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concept of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description of the invention presented later.

An object of the present invention is to provide a machine for decortication of chironji (Buchanania lanzan).

Another object of the present invention is to provide a decorticator that works on shear and impact forces in vertical plane.

Yet another object of the present invention to provide a decorticator that screens and grades after the decortications.

Still another object of the present invention to provide a decorticator machine that breaks chironji nut in a single operation.

Accordingly, in one implementation, a decorticator for chironji nut is disclosed. The decorticator comprises: a motor mounted to supply power for rotation; an inlet means having a hopper and feed rate controller means; a vertical cylindrical casing having rotary impellers, stripped impacting device, impeller shaft, and concave surfaces; a plurality of cleaning and grading means; an outlet means for the material; wherein angle of slotted tooth on top of impact device and concave surface is provided to one side grip and another side shear to remove the outer surface of cracked nuts; wherein the nuts from the inlet means are pushed at a controlled speed from hopper to the cylindrical casing where they are moved by rotating impellers mounted on impeller shaft and fall onto the stationary concave surface covering 180° of said cylindrical casing, where the nut cracks due to the impacting force on the surface and is pushed to the another side of concave surface to remove the outer surface of nut by shearing action which are then passed through the plurality of sliding cleaning and grading means to separate the shell and kernels.

Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 illustrates in a diagram the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 2 illustrates the frame of the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 3 illustrates the hopper, of the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 4 illustrates the feed rate controller of the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 5 illustrates the impeller of the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 6 illustrates (a) the impacting device; (b) impacting action of the impacting device in the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 7 illustrates the concave surface of the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 8 illustrates the cleaning and grading means of the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 9 illustrates the impact and shear principle of the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 10 illustrates by a plots the decorticating efficiency of the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 11 illustrates by plots the response surface showing the effect of (a) Impeller Speed and Moisture Content (b) Concave Clearance and Moisture Content (c) Feed Rate and Moisture Content (d) Concave Clearance and Impeller (e) Feed rate and impeller speed and (f) Feed rate and concave clearance on Decorticating Efficiency (%) of the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 12 illustrates by plots the response surface showing the effect of (a) Impeller Speed and Moisture Content (b) Concave Clearance and Moisture Content (c) Feed Rate and Moisture Content (d) Concave Clearance and Impeller Speed (e) Feed rate and impeller speed and (f) Feed rate and concave clearance on Kernels Recovery (%)from the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 13 illustrates by plots the recovery of kernel from the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 14 illustrates by plots the Chironji Broken Yield from the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Figure 15 illustrates by plots the response surface showing the effect of (a) Impeller Speed and Moisture Content (b) Concave Clearance and Moisture Content (c) Feed Rate and Moisture Content and (d) Feed Rate and Impeller Speed on Broken Yield (%)from the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
Figure 16 illustrates by plots the Equal Responses of (a) Concave Clearance and Moisture Content (b) Concave Clearance and Feed Rate (c) Impeller Speed and Feed Rate (d) Impeller Speed and Moisture Content and (e) Concave Clearance and Impeller Speed.

Figure 17 illustrates in a flow chart the working of the Chironji nut decorticator, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.

Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figure may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary.

Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.

The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

By the term “substantially” it is meant that the recited characteristic, parameter, or value need not be achieved exactly, but that deviations or variations, including for example, tolerances, measurement error, measurement accuracy limitations and other factors known to those of skill in the art, may occur in amounts that do not preclude the effect the characteristic was intended to provide.

Features that are described and/or illustrated with respect to one embodiment may be used in the same way or in a similar way in one or more other embodiments and/or in combination with or instead of the features of the other embodiments.

It should be emphasized that the term “comprises/comprising” when used in this specification is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.

In one implementation, the present invention provides a machine for decortication of chironji (Buchanania lanzan).

In one implementation, the present invention provides a decorticator that works on shear and impact forces in vertical plane.

In one implementation, the present invention provides a decorticator that screens and grades after the decortications.

In one implementation, the present invention provides a decorticator machine that breaks chironji nut in a single operation.

In one implementation, a decorticator for chironji nut is disclosed. The decorticator comprises: a motor mounted to supply power for rotation; an inlet means having a hopper and feed rate controller means; a vertical cylindrical casing having rotary impellers, stripped impacting device, impeller shaft, and concave surfaces; a plurality of cleaning and grading means; an outlet means for the material; wherein angle of slotted tooth on top of impact device and concave surface is provided to one side grip and another side shear to remove the outer surface of cracked nuts; wherein the nuts from the inlet means are pushed at a controlled speed from hopper to the cylindrical casing where they are moved by rotating impellers mounted on impeller shaft and fall onto the stationary concave surface covering 180° of said cylindrical casing, where the nut cracks due to the impacting force on the surface and is pushed to the another side of concave surface to remove the outer surface of nut by shearing action which are then passed through the plurality of sliding cleaning and grading means to separate the shell and kernels.

In one implementation, the decorticator is power operated. The developed decorticator derives power from motor. The unshelled chironji nut are fed to the hoper, and moved axially along the periphery of the cylinder where decortication of chironji is performed due to impact forces and shearing action between cylinder and concave parts. The decorticated chironji and shell particles passing through the concave, fall on oscillating sieves fixed beneath the machine, and finally get cleaned and collected at main outlet.

Referring now to figure 9, illustrating the impact and shear principle of impact decorticator, in accordance with the subject matter of the present invention. The decorticator is designed and developed for the purpose of decorticating the chironji nuts based on the physical properties of these nuts. It works on the principle of impact and shear on the nuts for the purpose of decorticating. The decorticating chamber is fitted with a canvas strip as a cutting device, which provides gentle impact and shear on the nut. The decorticating chamber is fitted with a sliding sieve, which allows repetitive impact and shear to detach the shell from the nut. The friction force between canvas impacting device and chironji nut provides required force on nut for detaching the shell from the nuts.

The impacting device of the decorticator machine helps in cracking the nut and its movement along the specially designed concave part of the machine which rupture and shear out nut. The special design and angle of slotted tooth on top of impact device and concave surface are provided to one side grip and another side to shear to remove the outer surface of cracked nuts.

Further, there is no need of separate equipment for screening and grading operation after the decortications, as this machine is already facilitated with screening and grading arrangement. The slope of screen and velocity is giving an effective grading and cleaning of the husk and kernels. The developed machine is safe, comfortable and capable of breaking chironji nut in a single operation. It is developed in view of the locally available machine parts and accessories.

The impact decorticator comprises of impeller assembly made of impeller and shaft, shelling or decorticating chamber/cylinder, cleaner/ grading means and hopper, which are all designed as per the mathematical calculations done. These are illustrated in the below preferred implementation.

Accordingly, in one preferred implementation of the present invention is provided a decorticator (Figure 1) with following parts:
1. Hopper
2. Feed rate controlling means
3. Decorticating chamber/cylinder
4. Impact device
5. Concave
6. Motor
7. Pulley
8. Collector hopper
9. Cleaner/grader means
10. Sieve Shaker
11. Kernel outlets

The material used for construction of impact decorticator machine is mild steel. However, materials of construction for every component of the decorticator machine are illustrated in the specification below.

Referring now to figure 2, illustrating the frame assembly of the decorticator machine, in accordance with the subject matter of the present invention. The base frame of the Decorticator is made rectangular by welding MS angle irons (45×45×5mm) of 312 mm and 400-mm size, which keeps the machine stable while in operation. For mounting the decorticating chamber, a rectangular frame is made of MS box (45×45×5mm). Power transmission unit and 3hp electrical motor may be mounted on the same frame.

Referring now to figure 3, illustrating the hopper of the decorticator machine, in accordance with the subject matter of the present invention. The size of nut box is designed for capacity of 22 kg with overhead. Since the bulk density of chironji nut is 585.1 kg/m3, the volume of 22 kg kernel comes out to be 0.0376 m3. According to the need of the machine, the top length and width of the hopper are taken 570 mm and 410 mm, respectively. The height of trapezoidal hopper is calculated as 306 mm. The angle of repose of chironji nut and kernels are 300 and 350 at moisture content 0.0893 kg/kg dry matter. The calculated side slope (41°) is found suitable for chironji nut. For easy flow of material inside the hopper, the side slope should be higher than angle of repose.

Referring now to figure 4, illustrating the feed rate controller of the decorticator machine, in accordance with the subject matter of the present invention. The feed rate controller is used for controlling the feed rate of the chironji nuts which is kept inside the hopper for decortications purpose. There is a shaft gear arrangement with a gear of 16 teeth. Diameter of gear with teeth is 26 mm while diameter without teeth is 22 mm, height of a single tooth is 2 mm. Shaft diameter is 10 mm and this gear is rolling on a straight gear arrangement which is in contact with the above gear of the shaft. A handle of diameter 60 mm is screwed at one end of the shaft which facilitates revolution of the shaft and the gear attached with it. For increasing the feed rate, the handle is moved anticlockwise and for decreasing the feed rate to the hopper, handle is moved clockwise.

Referring now to figure 1, illustrating the decorticating chamber of the decorticator machine, in accordance with the subject matter of the present invention. The decorticating chamber is the most unique and innovative part of this machine. The impacting device of the chamber helps in cracking the nut and its movement along the specially designed concave part, which ruptures and shear out the nuts. The special design and the angle of slotted tooth on the top of impact device and concave surface are provided to give one side grip and another side shearing to remove the outer surface of cracked nuts. The decorticating chamber is made of iron sheets of 2 mm thickness in semi cylindrical shape. The two semi cylinders may be joined with two nut bolts, for easy repairing of drum. A stationary concave, covering 180° of casing, is acting as the impacting surface for the nuts flying from the high speed rotating impeller. The different components of decorticating chamber are illustrated below.

Referring now to figure 5, illustrating the impeller of the decorticator machine, in accordance with the subject matter of the present invention. The preferred peripheral speed of impeller for chironji nut is 13 m/s. Based on the impeller speed variation between 150 to 300rpm, the average design speed is adopted as 200 rpm. The diameter of the impeller is calculated 590 mm. The length of the impeller (235 mm) is calculated assuming aspect ratio (length/diameter) of the impeller as 0.4. These impellers are mounted on impeller shafts is subjected to torsion loading and bending moment in combination. Hence, according to the maximum shear stress theory, the equivalent twisting moment of the shaft is calculated using equations 3.18 and 3.19. It is assumed that the power available to impeller shaft is 80 and 20% for cleaning assembly. The total power available for shelling and the torque transmitted by main shaft are 2.984 W and 76.38 Nm, respectively. Impeller pulley may also be mounted on one impeller shaft at a distance of xi = 55 mm from the center of bearing. The diameter of impeller shaft pulley is kept 80 mm. Torque and bending moment working on impeller pulley are calculated 76.38 N and 88.19 Nm and diameter of shaft is 30 mm.

Referring now to figure 6, illustrating the impacting device of the decorticator machine, in accordance with the subject matter of the present invention. A MS plate impacting device is attached to the cylinder. It is subjected to the different kind of forces which resulted in decortications of chironji nut. This impacting device is stripped to increase the crushing effect. The length of the top surface of this impacting device is 235 mm, width is 50 mm and thickness is 10 mm. The length of the bottom supporting unit of this impacting device, through which the working surface of impacting device is connected to the cylinder is 60 mm, width is 50 mm and a groove of length 50 mm and width 10 mm is made in the center of these supporting units, to facilitate in fixing of impacting device with the cylinder.

Referring now to figure 7, illustrating the concave surface of the decorticator machine, in accordance with the subject matter of the present invention. The concave length is kept equal to the thickness of impeller (235 mm) and is made of same circular fixed concave covering 160° of cylinder circumference fabricated from square bar (10 mm). The arc length of concave is calculated 824 mm. The radius of curvature of the concave is equal to radius of the cylinder i.e. 295 mm. The length and width of the concave are 824 and 235 mm, respectively whereas concave surface 193640 mm2. The spacing of mild steel (MS) flat is calculated 8 mm.

Referring now to figure 8, illustrating the cleaning and grading means of the decorticator machine, in accordance with the subject matter of the present invention. The cleaning and grading device is designed based on the size of whole and decorticated chironji nut which varied from 1 mm to 1.7 mm. The size of first and second sieve is kept 3.1 and 1.4 mm respectively. The sieves are designed to handle 65% of the total feeding material. The rate of kernel coming into the sieve is 160 kg/h. The bulk density of chironji nut kernel is 578.3 kg/m3. The volume flow rateof the material coming to the sieve is calculated0.0043 m3/min. The nutbed thickness, oscillating speed of shaker and stroke length of shaker are taken as 6 mm and the numbers of strokes are 300 per min. The oscillating velocity of sieve shaker is found 3m/min. The width of the sieve is 340mm as obtained by calculation. Taking aspect ratio 1.9:1 the length and the width of sieve are 650 and 340 mm, respectively. Two sieves are adjusted with a slope 300 and 200 as required speed of the sieving unit (150 stroke/min) was half of the speed of shaker.

In one most preferred implementation of the present invention the decorticator has the following specifications:

Table 1.Cylinder Peripheral Speeds and Operational Settings of invented machine
Sr. No. Decorticator parameters Recommended
1. Cylinder speed, m/s, 13
2. Concave clearance at the centre, mm 8
3. Gap between two axial square bars of concave, mm 6
4. Concave length, mm 824
5. Sieve hole size, mm 6,4
6. Sieve slope, degrees 30°, 20°

Table 2.Design Dimensions of Different Components of invented machine
Component Dimensions
A. Feeding hopper
Top section 570 × 410 mm
Bottom section 45 × 265 mm
Height 306 mm
B. Collecting hopper
Top section 660 × 660 mm
Bottom section 475 × 475 mm
Height 285 mm
C. Impeller
Overall diameter (with pegs) 590 mm
Drum diameter (without pegs) 570 mm
Length of the impeller 235 mm
No. of slotted impacting plate 20 (1 in each row)
Peg cross-section(l, b, t ) 235 × 50 ×10 mm
Gap between two adjacent slotted impacting plate 42.63 mm
E. Concave
Concave length 824 mm
Concave peripheral width 235 mm
Concave 150 mm
No of spokes 41
Concave clearance 6 mm
F. Frame
Length
Width 885 mm
495 mm
Height 1050 mm
G. Sieve system
No. of sieves 2
Size of each sieve ((length x width)) 655 × 340 mm
Hole diameter of top sieve 6 mm
Hole diameter of bottom sieve 4 mm
Thickness of the sieve 2 mm ms sheet (G)
Triangular part with discharge chute 165 × 165 × 340 mm
Triangular size of chute 110 × 50 mm
Inclination of sieve 1 30°
Inclination of sieve 2 20°
H. Power transmission system
AC Drive to Motor 1
Motor diameter of Pulley-1 3” × 2.54 × 10 =76.2mm
Rum diameter of pulley-2 304.8 mm
Sieve diameter of pulley-3 203.2 mm
Drum Diameter of shaft -1 34 mm

Apart from what is disclosed above, the present invention also includes some addition benefits and advantages. Few of the additional benefits are mentioned below:
• The present invention provides a simple mechanised operation to replace the manual decortications of chironji nuts.
• The invented decorticator machine works on dual force such as shear and impact which may help in improving the overall efficiency.
• There is no need of separate equipment for screening and grading operation after the decortications, as the present decorticator is facilitated with screening and grading arrangement.
• The developed machine is safe, comfortable and capable of breaking chironji nut in a single operation.
• The machine is developed in view of the locally available machine parts and accessories.
• The decorticator machine works on dual force such as shear and impact which may help in getting minimum kernel loss around 7-8%.
• The decorticator machine reduces the laborious effort by converting the manual decrotication of chinronji nut into mechanical.
• It increases the chinronji whole kernels recovery which is a great achievement because chironji kernels are very costly and has a good national and international market value.
• The decorticator machine also reduces the time of decortications and overall processing cost which makes this processing business profitable and highly economical.

The chironji nut decorticating machine is designed on the basis of physical (length, breadth, aspect ratio etc.), aerodynamics (terminal, winnowing velocity, etc.) and mechanical properties (breaking strength) of the chironji nuts and kernels. All these engineering properties of nuts and kernels were studied in the certain range of moisture content to examine the maximum moisture content sufficient for cracking the nuts without compromising the quality. The different operating parameters for the development of the machine were optimised with the help of various statistical tools. The optimal values for independent variables viz. moisture content, impeller speed; concave clearance and feed rate used for designing the machine are 11.25% db, 4.53 m/s, 0.007 mm and 131.4 kg/h, respectively. The corresponding values of responses in terms of decortication efficiency, kernel recovery and broken kernel were 74.54, 91.8 and 8.2%, respectively. The decorticating experiments were conducted at optimized levels to check the validity of fitted models. Closeness between predicted and experimental vales of responses was found be significant at 0.1% level of significance.

EXPERIMENTS:
Chironji nuts were passed through various pretreatments like soaking, de-skinning, fresh water washing and sun drying to make raw materials for the testing of developed machine. Pretreatment (especially fresh water soaking) of Chironji nut increased the shelling efficiency. The developed machine was tested for its capacity (kg nut/h), decortication efficiency (%), kernel recovery (%) and broken yield (%). The testing results were shown in Table 3.

Table 3.Technical Specifications of the Decorticator
Component Design Dimensions
Length of the machine 935 mm
Width of the machine 495 mm
Height of machine 1651 mm
Weight of the machine 168 kg
Power source 3-phase, Electric motor 3 HP
Decortication efficiency 74.56%
Recovery of Chironji kernel 91.82%
Broken yield 8.18%
Machine capacity 131.31 kg nut/h
Approximate cost of the machine 45,500/-

Experiment 1:
Optimization of independent parameters of chironji nut decorticator using CCRD:
The chironji nut decortication experiments were conducted with the machine developed. The experiments were designed by Central Composite Rotatable Design (CCRD) method. Four independent parameters viz.; moisture content, impeller speed, concave clearance and feed rate were considered for which three responses viz. decortication efficiency, recovery of chironji kernel and broken yield were measured. The CCRD and RSM are advantageous optimization techniques in which the process can be studied simultaneously enabling identification and quantification of significant interactions between the variables and predict the optimum conditions for the process through predictive models. Decortication recovery of chironji kernel and broken yield were taken as dependent variables. A center composite RSM design was used to show interactions among independent variables in 30 runs, of which 6 were for the center point, and 24 were for non-center point (Montgomery, 2001).
The ANOVA data show high model F value (4.46) suggesting that the quadratic model can be successfully used to fit the experimental data (P<0.01). The linear terms of moisture content and feed rate have significant effect on decortications efficiency (P<0.01)
Decorticating efficiencies as a function of four different factors was done in Design-Expert software. And the results are shown in Fig.11 with different factors like moisture content (%), impeller speed (m/s), concave clearance (m), and feed rate (kg/h) respectively. The ANOVA of decortication efficiency (DE) is presented in Table 4.

Table 4 CCRD Experimental Design for Decortications of Chironji Nut
Exp. No. Variables Responses
M, % Is, m/s CC, m Fr, kg/h DE, % RK, % BG, %
1 11.25 3.65 0.006 157.5 68.9 80.0 20
2 12.50 4.30 0.008 135.0 70.5 88.0 12
3 13.75 3.65 0.006 157.5 53.5 60.8 39.2
4 13.75 4.95 0.009 157.5 50.1 82.4 17.6
5 13.75 4.95 0.006 112.5 60.1 76.4 23.6
6 11.25 3.65 0.009 112.5 52.4 78.0 22
7 12.50 4.30 0.010 135.0 53.1 78.34 21.66
8 12.50 4.30 0.008 90.0 63.5 86.4 13.6
9 13.75 4.95 0.009 112.5 71.4 76.0 24
10 11.25 4.95 0.006 112.5 71.0 89.0 11
11 11.25 4.95 0.009 112.5 68.1 83.2 16.8
12 11.25 3.65 0.009 157.5 58.5 81.8 18.2
13 12.50 4.30 0.008 135.0 68.0 85.0 15
14 15.00 4.30 0.008 135.0 45.3 84.0 16
15 13.75 3.65 0.009 157.5 47.8 66.0 34
16 12.50 5.60 0.008 135.0 65.2 86.4 13.6
17 11.25 4.95 0.006 157.5 55.5 89.6 10.4
18 12.50 4.30 0.008 135.0 74.7 86.2 13.8
19 11.25 3.65 0.006 112.5 67.6 88.0 12
20 11.25 4.95 0.009 157.5 57.5 90.0 10
21 13.75 3.65 0.006 112.5 69.2 69.5 30.5
22 10.00 4.30 0.008 135.0 78.3 92.0 8
23 13.75 3.65 0.009 112.5 53.6 68.0 32
24 13.75 4.95 0.006 157.5 54.4 88.8 11.2
25 12.50 4.30 0.008 135.0 71.2 91.0 9
26 12.50 4.30 0.008 180.0 54.9 84.0 16
27 12.50 4.30 0.008 135.0 68.3 87.0 13
28 12.50 4.30 0.005 135.0 59.3 73.0 27
29 12.50 4.30 0.008 135.0 76.5 84.0 16
30 12.50 3.00 0.008 135.0 46.1 68.7 31.3

Experiment 2:
The ANOVA data show high model F value (4.46) suggesting that the quadratic model can be successfully used to fit the experimental data. The quadratic terms of impeller speed (Is) and concave clearance (Cc) are significant (P<0.01) whereas, linear terms of impeller speed and concave clearance are more significant. Moisture content with F value of 13.80 was observed to be significant at 1% level of significance whereas Impeller speed with F value of 3.68 was observed to be significant at 10% level of significance i.e. P<0.01. Concave clearance with F value of 3.53 was observed to be significant at 10% level of significance and Feed rate with F value of 8.8 was observed to be significant at 1% level of significance. It was found that moisture content and feed rate were found to be more significant than impeller speed and concave clearance at 1% level of significance. Thus, from the above statistical analysis, it is clear that moisture and feed rate as an independent variable has direct impact on decortication efficiency. The interaction term of moisture content and impeller speed, moisture content and conclave clearance and moisture content and feed rate were not found to be significant at 10% level of significance. Impeller speed and feed rate, concave clearance and feed rate both pairs of interaction term were found to be non-significant at 10% level of significance. In contrast, impeller speed and concave clearance were observed to be significant at 5% level of significance. Thus, from the above statistical analysis, it can be concluded that impeller speed and concave clearance as interaction terms shows significant effect at P<0.05, thus interaction of these 2 independent variables can significantly affect decortication efficiency. Rest other combinations of interaction terms do not affect the decortication efficiency. The quadratic terms of moisture content at F value of 3.75 was observed to be significant at 10% level of significance. Quadratic term of impeller speed and concave clearance were observed significant at 1% level of significance, whereas quadratic term of feed rate at F value of 6.31 was found to be significant at 5% level of significance. Quadratic term of impeller speed and clearance were found to be more significant than quadratic term of feed rate at 1% level of significance, whereas quadratic term of moisture content was observed to be significant at 5% level of significance. Thus, from the above statistical analysis, it is clear that impeller speed and concave clearance has direct effect on decortication efficiency as compared to that of feed rate and moisture content. Lack of fit was found to be non-significant at 10% level of significance. No significant effect of interaction terms was observed except impeller speed and concave clearance, where term was observed significant at 5 percent level of significance (Table 5). The quadratic terms of impeller speed and concave clearance were significant (P<0.01), whereas quadratic terms of feed rate was not significant. The regression coefficient of the equation was obtained using software Design Expert 7.0.0. The Coefficient of variation (CV) and adequate precision ratio (APR) for the developed model were 9.4 (<10 %) and 6.6 (>4), indicating the adequate precision of the model. The numerical presentation in variation of decortication efficiency with different variables viz., moisture content (M), impeller speed (Is), concave clearance (Cc) and feed rate (Fr) could be fitted well in quadratic equation (Eqn. 1).
DE= – 460.9 + 33.7 M + 4072.9 Is – 8.72 Is2 – 2.26 × 106 Cc2 – 5.5×10–3 Fr2 ……… (1)

From the Analysis of variance (ANOVA) data for the decortications efficiency (Response Surface Quadratic Model), it can be observed that the decortications efficiency (DE, %) increased with increase in impeller speed (Is) up to 4.3 m/s and thereafter decreased. There was slow decrease in decortication efficiency with increase of moisture content at all values. The increase in decortication efficiency from 65 to 69% was observed with increase of impeller speed from 3.65 to 4.3 m/s and decrease was observed thereafter. The plots of the residuals versus predicted fits suggesting that model fits the data well (Fig. 10).

Table 5 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) Data for the Decortications Efficiency
Source Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Value p-value
Model 2100.0 14 150.0 4.46 0.0034 Significant
M 464.6 1 464.6 13.80 0.0021
Is 123.9 1 123.9 3.68 0.0743
Cc 118.8 1 118.8 3.53 0.0799
Fr 296.3 1 296.3 8.80 0.0096
M×Is 3.2 1 3.2 0.10 0.7616
M×Cc 9.3 1 9.3 0.28 0.6063
M×Fr 55.7 1 55.7 1.66 0.2178
Is×Cc 175.2 1 175.2 5.20 0.0376
Is×Fr 94.6 1 94.6 2.81 0.1144
Cc×Fr 1.0 1 1.0 0.03 0.8653
M2 126.1 1 126.1 3.75 0.0720
Is2 372.1 1 372.1 11.05 0.0046
Cc2 343.4 1 343.4 10.20 0.0060
Fr2 212.3 1 212.3 6.31 0.0240
Residual 505.0 15 33.7
Lack of Fit 446.0 10 44.6 3.78 0.0775 not significant
Pure Error 59.0 5 11.8

Increasing impeller speed from 3.65 to 4.3 m/sec at a moisture content of 11.25 % (db), decortication efficiency was increased rapidly from 53.5 to 70.5% (Fig. 11(a). By increasing moisture content from 11.25 to 13.75 at impeller speed of 3.65 m/sec decortication efficiency remains constant and then decreases. From Fig.11 (b) it is clear that for concave clearance of 6 to 9 mm at moisture content of 11.25%, decortication efficiency show an optimum rise in decortication efficiency follow by a smooth decline. Increasing moisture content from 11.25 to 13.75 at concave clearance of 6 mm decortication efficiency was found to be decreasing slightly thereafter it becomes constant. Fig. 11(c) shows that when feed rate is increased from 102.5 to 157.5 kg/hr at constant moisture content of 11.25%, decortication efficiency showed a slight increase and then it became constant. With rise in moisture content from 11.25 to 13.75% at constant feed rate of 112.5 kg/hr the decortication efficiency remains constant initially and then decreases slightly. Fig. 11(d) reveals that with an increase from concave clearance from 0.006 to 9 mm at constant impeller speed of 3.65 m/sec decortication efficiency show a decline. At an increase in impeller speed from 3.65 to 4.95 m/sec and at constant concave clearance of 6 mm it shows a rapid increase in decortication efficiency up to an optimum level then followed by slight decrease. From Fig.11(e), it is clear that with an increase in feed rate from 112.5 to 157.5 kg/h at constant impeller speed of 3.65 m/s decortication efficiency show a slight increase. Increase in impeller speed from 3.65 to 4.95 m/s at constant feed rate of 112.5 kg/h decortication efficiency show a sharp increase. Fig. 11(f) reveals that with an increase in feed rate from 112.5 to 157.5 kg/h at a constant concave clearance of 6 mm decortication efficiency remains constant in initial stage and then declines slightly. With an increase from concave clearance from 6 to 9 mm at feed rate of 112.5 kg/h decortications efficiency increases slightly and then followed a sharp decline.

Experiment 3:
Recovery of Chironji Kernel: The ANOVA data set shows very high model F value (7.36) suggesting that the quadratic model can be successfully used to fit the experimental data (P<0.001). As per F-value indicate in Table 6, the linear terms of moisture content and impeller speed have high influence on chironji nut kernel recovery (P<0.001), whereas linear terms of concave clearance and feed rate, are not significant. The cross term of impeller speed and feed rate is significant (p<0.05), whereas cross term of other variable are not significant. The square term of impeller speed and concave clearance were found significant (p<0.05) where are other square terms are non-significant. The numerical presentation in variation of chironji nut kernel recovery with different independent variables viz., moisture content, impeller speed, concave clearance (Cc), and feed rate are fitted in quadratic equation 2. The ANOVA of recovery of chironji kernel (Re) is presented in Table 6.
Table 6 ANOVA for Recovery of Chironji kernel
Source Sum of Squares df Mean F-value p-value
Model 1727.42 14 123.39 7.36 0.0002 Significant
M 483.30 1 483.30 28.82 < 0.0001
Is 587.07 1 587.07 35.01 < 0.0001
Cc 1.51 1 1.51 0.09 0.7682
Fr 1.76 1 1.76 0.10 0.7504
M×Is 77.88 1 77.88 4.64 0.0478
M×Cc 6.89 1 6.89 0.41 0.5312
M×Fr 1.50 1 1.50 0.09 0.7689
Is×Cc 3.71 1 3.71 0.22 0.6451
Is×Fr 105.58 1 105.58 6.30 0.0241
Cc×Fr 21.86 1 21.86 1.30 0.2715
M2 0.36 1 0.36 0.02 0.8857
Is2 203.95 1 203.95 12.16 0.0033
Cc2 280.32 1 280.32 16.72 0.0010
Fr2 18.19 1 18.19 1.08 0.3141
Residual 251.56 15 16.77
Lack of Fit 221.02 10 22.10 3.62 0.0842 not significant
Pure Error 30.53 5 6.11
Cor Total 1978.98 29

The coefficient of determination R2 (0.87) of the model was reasonably high and CV and APR for the developed model were in adequate range, indicating the adequate precision of the model (Eqn. 2). ANOVA data for chironji nut kernel recovery reveal that the chironji nut kernel recovery increases with increase of impeller speed, whereas decrease with increase of moisture content. The linear term of moisture content at F value of 28.82 was observed to be significant at 0.1% level of significance whereas impeller speed at F value of 35.01 was observed to be significant at 0.1% level of significance i.e. P<0.0001. Concave clearance and Feed rate was found to be non-significant. It was found that moisture content and impeller speed were more significant at 0.1% level of significance. Thus, from the above statistical analysis, it is clear that moisture and impeller speed as an independent variable has direct impact on Chironji kernel recovery. The interaction term of moisture content and Impeller speed at F value of 4.64 was found to be significant at 5% level of significance i.e. P<0.05. Impeller speed and feed rate at F value of 6.3 was found to be significant at 5% level of significance. Pairs of interaction terms of moisture content and conclave clearance, moisture content and feed rate, impeller speed and concave clearance and concave clearance and feed rate found to be non-significant. Both interaction Moisture content and impeller speed and impeller speed and feed rate were found to have a significant effect on recovery of Chironji kernel. The quadratic terms of moisture was found to be non-significant whereas impeller speed was found to be significant at 1% level of significance i.e. p < 0.01. Concave clearance at F value of 16.72 was found to be significant at 1% level of significance i.e. p < 0.01. Quadratic term of moisture and Feed rate were found to be non-significant. Quadratic terms of Impeller speed and concave clearance was found to be significant at 1% level of significance, thus, showing a direct impact on Recovery of chironji kernel. Lack of fit was found to be non-significant at 10% level of significance.
RK= 152.4 – 18.1 M + 9.9 Is × FR + 41.6 Cc × FR – 6.5 Is2……………… (2)
(R2= 0.87; Adj R2=0.75)
The plots (Fig.13) of the residuals versus predicted fits suggesting that model fits the data well. From Fig. 12(a) increasing impeller speed from 3.65 to 4.95 m/sec at a moisture content of 11.25 % (db) recovery of chironji kernel was found to be increased rapidly and then it becomes steady. By increasing moisture content from 11.25 to 13.75 at constant, impeller speed of 3.65 m/sec Recovery of chironji kernel exhibited a steep decline. From Fig. 12(b), it is clear that for concave clearance of 6 to 9 mm at moisture content of 11.25% Recovery of chironji kernel was found to increase up to an optimum level and then decreased. With increase in moisture content from 11.25 to 13.75 at concave clearance of 6 mm recovery of chironji kernel was found to be decline. Fig. 12(c) shows that when feed rate is increased from 112.5 to 157.5 kg/h at constant moisture content of 11.25%, recovery of Chironji kernel is found to increase rapidly. With rise in moisture content from 11.25 to 13.75% at constant feed rate of 112.5 kg/h the Recovery of Chironji kernel exhibited a steep decline. Fig. 12(d) reveals that with an increase from concave clearance from 6 to 9 mm at constant impeller speed of 3.65 m/s recovery of Chironji kernel showed an increase up to optimum level followed by a decline, At an increase in Impeller speed from 3.65 to 4.95 m/s and at constant concave clearance of 6 mm Recovery of Chironji kernel was found to increased rapidly. From Fig.12 (e), it is clear that with an increase in feed rate from 112.5 to 157.5 kg/h, at constant impeller speed of 3.65 m/s Recovery of Chironji kernel is found to be constant throughout the experiment. Increase in impeller speed from 3.65 to 4.95 m/s, at constant feed rate of 112.5 kg/h recovery of Chironji kernel increases up to optimum level and thereafter it becomes constant Fig. 12 (f) reveals that with an increase in feed rate from 112.5 to 157.5 kg/h at a constant concave clearance of 6 mm, recovery of Chironji kernel is found to be more or less similar. With an increase in concave clearance from 6 to 9 mm at feed rate of 112.5 kg/h recovery % is found to increase up to optimum level and then declined.

Experiment 4:
Chironji Broken Yield
The ANOVA of the broken yield is presented in the Table 7. The ANOVA data show high model F value (7.36) indicated quadratic model can be successfully used to fit the experimental data. The linear terms of impeller speed and moisture content have high influence on broken yield (p<0.001), whereas the effect of linear terms of concave clearance and feed rate and cross terms are not significant. The numerical presentation in variation of broken yield with different variables viz., moisture content (M), impeller speed (Is), concave clearance (Cc) and feed rate (Fr) could be fitted well in quadratic equation.
Table 7 ANOVA of Chironji broken yield.
Source Sum of
Squares df Mean
Square F
Value p-value
Prob> F
Model 1727.42 14 123.39 7.36 0.0002 Significant
M 483.30 1 483.30 28.82 < 0.0001
Is 587.07 1 587.07 35.01 < 0.0001
Cc 1.51 1 1.51 0.09 0.7682
Fr 1.76 1 1.76 0.10 0.7504
M×Is 77.88 1 77.88 4.64 0.0478
M×Cc 6.89 1 6.89 0.41 0.5312
M×Fr 1.50 1 1.50 0.09 0.7689
Is×Cc 3.71 1 3.71 0.22 0.6451
Is×Fr 105.58 1 105.58 6.30 0.0241
Cc×Fr 21.86 1 21.86 1.30 0.2715
M2 0.36 1 0.36 0.02 0.8857
Is2 203.95 1 203.95 12.16 0.0033
Cc2 280.32 1 280.32 16.72 0.0010
Fr2 18.19 1 18.19 1.08 0.3141
Residual 251.56 15 16.77
Lack of Fit 221.02 10 22.10 3.62 0.0842 not significant
Pure Error 30.53 5 6.11
Cor Total 1978.98 29

The coefficient of variation of the model (R2 = 0.87) is sufficient and the CV and APR for the developed model are 22 and 10.7 indicating the adequate precision of the model (Eqn. 3). The broken yield of chironji nut kernel initially increase with increase in moisture content and concave clearance, whereas broken yield decrease with increase of impeller speed from 3.65 to 4.30 m/s and increase thereafter.
BG= – 50.2 + 18.1 M – 9.9 IS + 6.5 Is2 + 8.6 ×105 Cc2 + 1.6 × 10–3 Fr2 …. (3)
(R2= 0.87; Adj. R2=0.75)
The plots of the residuals versus predicted fits suggesting that model fits the data well, the linear term of moisture content at F value of 21.02 was observed to be significant at 0.1% level of significance, whereas Impeller speed at F value of 17.86 was observed to be significant at 0.1% level of significance i.e. P < 0.0001. Concave clearance and Feed rate were found to be non-significant. It was found that moisture content and impeller speed were found to be more significant at 0.1% level of significance. Thus, from above statistical analysis, it is clear that moisture and impeller speed as an independent variable has direct impact on chironji broken yield. The interaction term, all the pairs of interaction terms (Moisture content and Impeller speed, Moisture content and Conclave clearance, Moisture content and Feed rate, Impeller speed and Concave clearance, Impeller speed and Feed rate and concave clearance and Feed rate) were found to be non-significant. Since, all the terms are non-significant, thus, having no direct impact on chironji broken yield. The quadratic terms moisture was found to be non-significant, whereas impeller speed at F value of 8.46 was found to be significant at 5% level of significance i.e. p < 0.05. Concave clearance at F value of 9.67 was found to be significant at 1% level of significance i.e. p < 0.01. Quadratic term of Feed rate at F value of 4.67 was found to at 5% level of significance P <0.05. Concave clearance was found to have more impact as compared to impeller speed and Feed rate on Chironji broken yield. Lack of fit was found to be non-significant. From Fig.15(a) increasing impeller speed from 3.65 to 4.95 m/s at a moisture content of 11.25 % (db), Chironji broken yield was found to be decreased and thereafter increased slightly. By increasing moisture content from 11.25 to 13.75 at constant impeller speed of 3.65 m/s Chironji broken yield showed a steep increase. From Fig. 15(b) it is clear that for concave clearance of 6 to 9 mm at moisture content of 11.25% Chironji broken yield was found to decline followed by an increase up to 4.75% of Broken Yield. With increase in moisture content from 11.25 to 13.75 % at concave clearance of 6 mm Chironji broken yield showed a steep increase. Fig. 15(c) shows that when feed rate is increased from 112.5 to 157.5 kg/h at constant moisture content of 11.25% Chironji broken yield showed a decline followed by an increase in Chironji Broken Yield per cent. With rise in moisture content from 11.25 to 13.75% at constant feed rate of 112.5 kg/hr the Chironji broken yield shown to have a steep increase. Fig. 15(d) reveals that with an increase from concave clearance from 0.006 to 9 mm at constant impeller speed of 3.65 m/s Chironji broken yield decrease followed by an increase. At an increase in impeller speed from 3.65 to 4.95 m/s, and at constant concave clearance of 6 mm, Chironji broken yield showed a decline followed by a very slight increase. From fig 4.22(e), it is clear that with an increase in feed rate from 112.5 to 157.5 kg/h at constant impeller speed of 3.65 m/s Chironji broken yield decrease followed by an increase. With an increase in impeller speed from 3.65 to 4.95 m/s at constant feed rate of 112.5 kg/h, Chironji broken yield is found to decrease. Fig 4.22(f) reveals that with an increase in feed rate from 112.5 to 157.5 kg/h at a constant concave clearance of 6 mm, Chironji broken yield is found to decreased followed by an slight increase. With an increase in concave clearance from 0.006 to 9 mm at feed rate of 112.5 kg/h, Chironji broken yield decrease slightly followed by an increase.

Experiment 5:
Optimization of independent Variables of Chironji nut decorticator
Firstly, the range of optimized responses was achieved (Using Design Expert- 7.0 software) numerically by putting the required values and responses at optimization criteria given in Table 8. In the results of numerical optimization, ten solutions were obtained which are listed in Table 9.
Table 8: Criteria for Optimization of Moisture Content, Impeller Speed, Concave Clearance and Feed rate for Achieving optimal decortication responses
Name Goal Lower
Limit Upper
Limit Lower
Weight Upper
Weight Importance
Moisture content is in range 11.25 13.75 1 1 3
Impeller Speed is in range 3.65 4.95 1 1 3
Concave clearance is in range 0.006 0.009 1 1 3
Feed rate is in range 112.5 157.50 1 1 3
Decortication efficiency maximized 45.26 78.29 1 1 3
Recovery of chironji kernel maximized 60.80 92 1 1 3
Broken yield is in range 2.60 15 1 1 3
Table 9 Optimal Values of Independent and Dependent Variables Obtained from Numerical optimization
S. No Moisture content (%) Impeller Speed(m/s) Concave clearance
(m) Feed rate
(kg/h) Decortica-tion efficiency (%) Recovery of chironji kernel (%) Broken yield (%)
1 11.25 4.53 0.007 131.31 74.56 91.82 8.18
2 11.25 4.53 0.007 131.41 74.54 91.83 8.17
3 11.25 4.52 0.007 131.19 74.58 91.81 8.19
4 11.25 4.52 0.01 130.98 74.59 91.80 8.20
5 11.25 4.53 0.01 130.93 74.58 91.81 8.19
6 11.25 4.54 0.01 131.56 74.52 91.84 8.16
7 11.25 4.53 0.01 130.81 74.57 91.81 8.19
8 11.25 4.51 0.01 130.25 74.65 91.77 8.23
9 11.25 4.53 0.01 131.74 74.50 91.85 8.15
10 11.25 4.52 0.01 130.07 74.65 91.77 8.23
11 11.25 4.53 0.01 130.48 74.60 91.79 8.21
12 11.25 4.55 0.01 134.53 74.18 91.97 8.03
13 11.25 4.54 0.01 137.42 73.86 91.99 8.01

The graphical optimization (Fig 16), using Design Expert 7.0.0 was also carried out to show the optimal area in the overlaid plot. The optimal values for independent variables moisture content, impeller speed, concave clearance and feed rate were 11.25% db, 4.53 m/s, 0.007 mm and 131.4 kg/h, respectively. The corresponding responses viz., decortication efficiency, kernel recovery and broken kernel were 74.54, 91.8 and 8.2%, respectively. Experiments were conducted at optimum values of independent variables and the responses were measured in order to validate the developed regression models. The values of responses viz., dehulling efficiency, kernel recovery and broken kernel were found 72±1.5, 90±2.6 and 7.5±1.2%, respectively.

The illustrations of arrangements described herein are intended to provide a general understanding of the structure of various embodiments, and they are not intended to serve as a complete description of all the elements and features of the decorticator machine that might make use of the structures described herein. Many other arrangements will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. Other arrangements may be utilized and derived therefrom, such that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Figures are also merely representational and may not be drawn to scale. Certain proportions thereof may be exaggerated, while others may be minimized. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

Thus, although specific arrangements have been illustrated and described herein, it should be appreciated that any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific arrangement shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any and all adaptations or variations of various embodiments and arrangements of the invention. Combinations of the above arrangements, and other arrangements not specifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description.