Development and Fabrication of Engine-operated Pulses Milling Machine

Despite Ethiopia being Africa's largest producer of pulse crops, the lack of a milling machine for processing pulse grains reduced the yield and benefits acquired. In order to prolong pulses' shelf life, keep them from spoiling, and maintain their nutritional value, processing is essential. Pulse processing facilitates a reduction of fibre and tannin contents and improvement in the appearance, texture, cooking quality, palatability, and digestibility of grain legumes. The purpose of this article is to design and build portable engine-powered grinding machines for faba beans, peas, and lentils. The pulses milling prototype was developed by considering the local availability of materials at Bako Agricultural Engineering Research Centre (BAERC) for pulses crops like faba bean, pea, and lentil. The manufactured prototype was easily portable and used for areas of Ethiopia where electric service was not available. The fabricated pulses milling prototype was made up of a frame, hopper, cleaning unit, and splitting unit. There were two emery discs in the splitting unit: a rotating type and a fixed stone. The machine was operated by four pulleys; two driving pulleys were mounted on the crankshaft of the engine, one driven pulley was mounted on the fan shaft, and one pulley was mounted on the main shaft. Finally, the prototype pulse milling machine needs 3.67 kW of total power to run.