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Farm Scale Winnower

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Tokiniana Rakotoarindrano
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22 views6 pages

Farm Scale Winnower

Uploaded by

Tokiniana Rakotoarindrano
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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http://www.savingourseeds.

org

Farm-scale winnower
Allen Dong, I-Tech, PO Box 413, Veneta, OR 97487
Public domain, no copyright – a gift to humanity
Revised 12/2005

Appropriate Technology for Small and Subsistence Farms


I Tech designs, Allen Dong, PO Box 413 Veneta, OR 97487

[Other designs available at http://www.agronomy.ucdavis.edu/LTRAS/itech/ ]

This electric winnower removes chaffs from small grains (barley, clover, quinoa,
wheat), large grains (vetch, pea, bean) and dried roots. It uses a blower with a
1/3 horsepower 1025 rpm, AC motor and a 10-inch diameter wheel (Figure 1).
The winnower chute is 14 inches wide because 30-gauge galvanized sheet metal
flashing (roofing material) comes in 14-inch wide rolls (Figures 2 and 3).

The winnower separates grains from chaff by density difference; the greater the
differences in density, the more complete the separation. Materials to be
winnowed are placed in the grain tray, and then pushed into the chute through
the grain entrance near the top of the chute (Figure 1). The blower forces air
upwards from the bottom of the chute. The airflow causes the lighter chaff to
follow the air up and out the top of the chute, while allowing the heavier grain to
drop down the chute. The winnower cannot separate materials with similar
densities (beans from dirt clods; beans from fresh nightshade berries; or wheat
from vetch).

Air velocity in the chute is determined by the blower size and rpm, the size of the
blower opening, the throat depth of the chute (Figures 2, 3 and 4), and the
amount of material in the chute being winnowed. Adjust the air velocity to lift the
grain up but not high enough for the majority of the grain to exit through the top of
the chute. This design has a 5-inch hurdle (Figures 3 and 4); chaff must rise
more than 5 inches above the grain entrance to exit the top of the chute. For
initial settings, adjust the air velocity to lift the grain 6 inches or adjust the air
velocity to float 1 percent of the grain out the top of chute while allowing 99
percent of the grain to drop down the chute. Re-winnow the 1 percent of grain
that exited the top of the chute.

Air velocity in the chute is not constant. When materials enter the chute, they
obstruct the airflow and decrease the air velocity. Varying the rate in which
materials are pushed into the chute will affect the degree of obstruction, the air
velocity, the proportion of grain lifted out the top of the chute and the proportion
of chaff remaining in the winnowed grain.

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1. Design considerations: provide a uniform and well-regulated airflow across


a large cross sectional area for winnowing.
a. Using a blower with an AC motor complicates the design because it
lacks continuously variable speed control. The reasons for using
an AC motor are cost and availability. If cost were not a
consideration then it would be simpler to regulate the airflow with a
continuously variable speed DC blower.
b. A typical 1/3 hp heating and ventilation blower with an AC motor
provides excess airflow needed for winnowing, even at the lowest
speed. The blower is baffled to reduce the airflow.
c. The cross-sectional area for winnowing increases with increasing
throat depth. However the uniformity of airflow begins to decrease
significantly at a throat depth of 3 inches.
d. Reducing the winnower throat depth with (removable) spacer
boards may improve the uniformity of airflow across the cross-
sectional area. The spacer board also causes the airflow in the
chute to increase and requires corresponding baffle adjustment to
reduce the airflow.
2. Airflow regulation is accomplished by blocking the blower opening with a
baffle plate. Multiple boltholes are made to the baffle plate to allow
adjusting the blower opening from ¼ inch to 3 inches. CAUTION,
prolonged operation of an unloaded wide-open blower, without baffling,
may cause the motor to ‘over run’ and burn the motor.
3. The throat depth of the winnower chute is 5 inches wide. Removable
spacer boards are attached inside the chute using c-clamps to reduce the
throat depth. A smaller throat depth (1 ¾ -2 ¼ inches) provides a more
uniform airflow and more consistent winnowing of small grains. A larger
throat depth (up to 3 inches) provides a larger cross-sectional area to
winnow large grains. Larger materials such as dried roots may need a
throat depth greater than 3 inches to pass through the chute efficiently. If
the winnower will not to be used for large materials, then design the chute
with a 3-inch throat depth and use spacer boards to decrease the throat
depth as necessary.
4. The chute dimensions (height, radius of curvatures, angle for blower air
inlet, grain entrance, chaff exit etc) are not critical as minor changes in
dimensions are easily compensated using spacer boards and by varying
the blower opening with a baffle.
5. Optional: to prevent grain and chaff from entering the blower, attach a
screen with ¼ x ¼ inch wire spacing (wire cloth) in the blower opening or
in the chute near the blower opening. The screen also helps diffuse the air
inside the chute for a more uniform airflow.

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Figure 3. Exploded view of winnower chute

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Figure 4. Winnower chute dimensions.

Technical assistance from Robert Rousseau and Larry Fisher, Davis, CA

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