Adaptation and Performance Evaluation of Engine Driven Faba bean Thresher to PTO Driven Faba Bean Thresher

One of Ethiopia's first domesticated cool-season food legumes is the faba bean. Ethiopia primarily uses traditional methods for threshing faba beans, which are labor-intensive, lead to worker fatigue, yield little, and lower seed quality. Thus, the purpose of this study is to modify and assess the performance of a PTO-driven faba bean thresher. The mainframe, feeding table, threshing unit, grain, chaff, and straw, dust outlets, three-point linkage, and power transmission system make up the modified thresher. Three factors three drum speed (rpm) levels and three feed rate (kg/hr) levels with three replications were included in the fully randomized experimental design. At predetermined drum speed and feed rates, the main and interaction effects of machine operating parameters on threshing capacity, threshing efficiency, cleaning efficiency, percentage of grain breakage, and percentage of grain loss were investigated. When the machine operated at a feeding rate of 840 kg/hr and a drum speed of 450 rpm, the optimal result was achieved. For the faba bean crop, these operating parameters yielded a threshing capacity of 416 kg/hr, a threshing efficiency of 99.24%, a cleaning efficiency of 97.38%, a grain breakage percentage of 0.56%, and a grain loss of 1.49%. These results generally indicate that the threshing machine is easy to use, has a straightforward design, and is appropriate for small and medium-sized farmers.