Optimizing Axial Flow Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana L.) Thresher for Efficient Performance: A Taguchi Orthogonal Array Approach

The traditional methods of threshing finger millet crop, such as beating with a stick or foot trampling, are highly drudgery prone, time-consuming, and labour-intensive operation. To overcome these limitations, an axial flow mechanical thresher developed by Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (IGKV), Raipur for finger millet crops was evaluated for optimization of operational parameters. Operational parameters such as feed rate (FR), peripheral speed (PS), moisture content (MC), sieve size (SS), inclination angle (IA) and stroke length (SL) were optimized to maximize threshing efficiency (TE), output capacity (OC) and cleaning efficiency (CE) of the thresher. Taguchi’s orthogonal arrays were used to estimate the optimum conditions for threshing and cleaning unit. It is apparent from the study that the highest TE, OC, and CE were achieved at FR of 3 kg min^-1, PS of 9.14 m s^-1, MC of 11%, SS of 3 mm, IA of 4°, and SL of 20 mm. At optimized conditions, the highest TE, OC, and CE of 99.10%, 2.56 kg min^-1, and 96.34% were observed, with a minimum broken percentage of 1.60%.