
DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF SOYBEAN GRADER MACHINE
ABSTRACT
Processing soybeans, for planting and business purposes involves sorting them by size, which is a procedure. In Bangladesh, unsorted soybeans are commonly traded in the market. Selling soybeans after grading would be advantageous for growers and buyers both. Soybeans are graded by hand when needed because there are no automatic graders available. This is an expensive, inefficient, and time-consuming procedure. To provide a workable way of grading marketable soybeans by size, the current study was conducted to develop and build a horizontal swing-type grader for village-level activities. The grading unit, outlet tray, AC motor, and hopper are all fixed to a frame that makes up the grader. The grader was built using resources that could be found nearby to maintain cheap prices. The grading unit was constructed with a mild steel angle bar frame, hopper, and output tray made of mild steel sheet in addition to a stainless-steel sieve. A 1 hp single-phase electric motor was employed as the prime mover, and the rpm was decreased using a 16:1 gearing. These were examined on soybean seeds as independent variables to evaluate how they affected the capacity, power consumption, and efficiency of the grading system. After the data were examined, it was determined that the grader’s ideal configuration had a delivery rate of 341.71 kg/hr and an inclination of 12°, which resulted in a power consumption of 229.32 W-hr and a system efficiency of 71.38 percent. The device should be improved further to boost effectiveness and economy as well as to make loading and using it easier.