Ergonomical Evaluation of Plastic covered Thbular Maize Sheller

In the present study, the outer cover of the conventional metallic maize sheller was replaced by its plastic equivalent without changing the inside fins. This replacement reduced its weight by 50.5%. Experiments were carried out on four subjects (2 male and 2 female) agricultural workers of Meghalaya for ergonomical performance evaluation of the two different types of maize shellers. The reduction of workload for male and female workers in the plastic covered maize sheller were 33.17 and 36.68 per cent, respectively, over the metallic maize sheller. Correspondingly the heart rate (HR) and oxygen consumption rate (OCR) reduced by 17.39 and 23.07, and 31.70 and 20.00 per cent for male and female agricultural workers, respectively.