Design and Multi-objective Optimization of Vibro-Pneumatic Separator for Paddy Pre-Cleaning using RSM

Development of vibro-pneumatic separator machine considering both machining parameter and characteristic of grain product was presented in this paper in term of multi-objective optimization. Design of separator machine combines both pneumatic part to separate the light impurity contaminant and multilevel vibrating sieve to separate other type of contaminant for pre-cleaning purpose. Machining parameters such as airflow rate, vibration frequency and moisture content are investigated in this paper to analyze its effect on separation efficiency and product losses. The research was based on Response Surface Methodology (RSM) with 3 continuous factors and 3 levels of each factor. The experiment revealed that airflow rate, vibration frequency and moisture content were found significant on separation efficiency and product losses. It confirmed that the quadratic polynomial model were good at R-squared of 95.97 for the separation efficiency and 96.42 for product losses. Based on the RSM response optimizer, the optimal condition can be achieved using the setup of the airflow rate at 4.3 m/s, the moisture content at 8 and the vibration frequency at 20 m/s. The optimum setup promised the separation efficiency of 89.1 and the product losses of 3.6. This parameter setup can be used in terms of design purpose and setup the optimum parameter of vibro-pneumatic separator machine that can be used for various grain material pre-cleaning process for a sustainable rice production. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.