III Separator Units
III Separator Units
UNIT-III
SEPARATOR UNITS
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Theory of Separation
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Type of Separators
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Type of Separators
A mixture of seeds can be separated on the basis of
➢ Difference in length, width/thickness
➢ Specific gravity
➢ Shape and surface texture
➢ Drag in moving air
➢ Color
➢ Electrical conductivity and
➢ Magnetic properties
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Disk separator
• The disk separator separates materials on the basis of difference in length of various
constituents.
• The separator has pockets or indentations on its surfaces. When the machine is
operated, the smaller sized materials are caught in the pockets while the larger ones
are rejected.
• It is used especially for removing dissimilar material like wheat, rye, mustard, and
barley from oats.
• The indent disk separator consists of a number of disks in series fitted on a shaft
inside a close housing, which revolves on a horizontal axis.
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The pockets are slightly undercut on each disk as shown in figure. 13-Apr-23
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Disk separator
• As the disks revolve through a mixture of grains, the pockets pick up short grains and
drop them in a trough at the side of the machine.
• The desirable or undesirable materials not lifted by the disks are conveyed through
the disk spokes to the end of the machine and pass out through the tailing opening.
• The ‘R’ pocket derives its name from ‘rice’ and was designed to remove broken rice
grains from whole grains. It rejects round grains but lifts out cross-broken or flat
grains.
• The ‘V’ pocket derives its name from ‘vetch’ and was designed to pick up and remove
round shaped grains.
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Spiral separator
• The spiral separator separates the grain as per their roundness.
• The round materials of the mixture pick up speed as they slide down the
inclined surface until their centrifugal force becomes sufficient enough to
throw them in the outer helix and are discharged through a separate spout.
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Spiral separator
• The rate of feeding is the only adjustable component.
• The feeding should be such that each grain slides independently for
effective separation.
• Separation of mustard, rape, soybean, wild peas or other round seeds can be
performed from wheat, oats etc.
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Inclined draper
• The separation by inclined belt draper takes place due to difference in shape and
surface texture of the material.
• The mixture to be separated is fed over the center of an inclined draper belt moving in
upward direction.
• The round and smooth grains roll or side down the draper at faster rate than the
upward motion of the belt, and these are discharged in a hopper.
• The flat shape or rough surfaced particles are carried to the top of the inclined draper
and dropped of into another hopper.
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• It is a finishing machine and should be used only after cleaning and separation of
grain from the chaff and trash.
• It is effective in separating grain with a rough seed coat or sharp angles from smooth
surface grain.
• This is also called as Roll mill or velvet roll mill or dodder mill.
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• The mixture to be separated is fed onto the upper end of the rollers. As the rollers
rotate, the smooth grains bounce down the inclined trough and are discharged at the
lower end of the machine.
• The rough surfaced grains or the grains having sharp or broken edges are caught in
the velvet.
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• The mixture of grain is fed into the feed box. The air is blown up through the porous
deck surface and bed of the grain by a fan at such a rate that the material is partially
lifted from contact with the desk surface.
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• The lightest materials are lifted to the top of the stratified mass.
• The stratified mass moves along the direction of conveyance due to oscillating motion
of the deck and is discharged at the right edge of the deck.
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• It separates the grain mass into two fractions as per the difference in specific gravity
separator.
• The mixture is fed onto the centre of a perforated deck. The air coming through the
deck from bottom stratifies the materials while the reciprocating action of the deck
separates the heavy particles from the lighter particles.
• The heavier particles move towards the top end of the deck whereas the lighter
particles are discharged from the low end of the deck.
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• Both the aspirator and the pneumatic separator use terminal velocity of the grain to
separate different fractions.
• This refers to the velocity of air require to suspend particles in a rising air current.
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• The mixture of products introduced in to a confined rising air stream, the particles
with low terminal velocities are lifted by the air current whereas the particles with
higher terminal velocities than air velocity fall down.
• The air velocity can be adjusted by altering the speed of fan or by changing the
opening of air inlet.
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Pneumatic separator and aspirator
separators
• The aspirator has a fan at the air discharge point, which creates a vacuum or negative
pressure within the machine.
• The mixture of the grain is dropped in to a rising column, which has a velocity
slightly lower than the terminal velocity of the heavy grains.
• The leaves, trash and lighter particles rise with the air and are deposited in an
enlarged settling tank. The denser, plumper grains fall through the incoming air in to a
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4.
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Separation based on fluidization
technique
• The fluidized bed cleaner/separator makes the classification of seed due to difference
in density and size.
• This device is suitable for cleaning lighter seeds like cabbage, radish, lettuce, carrot,
onion, etc.
• When an air current is passed vertically, upward through a perforated deck containing
a bed of granular materials, various phenomenon occur.
• At the low air flow rate, the bed remains inert, causing pressure drop in the air
flowing through the bed.
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Separation based on fluidization
technique
• The seeds fall from the hopper either directly onto the deck or onto a vibratory feeder
and from there onto the deck.
• A fan feeds a plenum chamber beneath the porous deck to fluidize the seeds
immediately.
• The channel slopes are kept between 10-20° so that the fluidized seed flows down the
slope while classifying in the normal way.
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Magnetic separator
• The separation is mainly based on the affinity for liquids which is used for separation.
• Since seeds contains no free iron and are not attracted by a magnet they must be
selectively pretreated with a magnetic material such as finely ground iron powder.
• Rough seed coats, cracked or broken seed coats, dirt lumps, chaff or seed with a
sticky residue on the surface will hold the liquid and become sticky, so that iron
powder will adhere to them.
• Smooth coated seeds will not absorb liquid. So no iron powder will adhere to them.
• The seed are then discharged from mixing chamber and brought into contact with a
powerful magnet, which removes the iron coated seeds.
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• The grain mixture is fed uniformly into the optical chamber of the separator.
• Two photocells are fixed at a particular angle, which direct both beams to one
point of the parabolic trajectory of the grains.
• A needle is placed on the other side, which is connected to a high voltage source
(fig).
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Color separator
• The needle end receives a charge and imparts it to the dark seed.
• The grains are then passed between two electrodes with a high potential difference
between them.
• The seed is compared with a selected background or color range, and is separated
into two fractions according to difference in color.
• Since this machine views each grain individually, the capacity is low.
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Cyclone separator
• The cyclone separator is a device for collecting the end product in processing
operations.
• It is most commonly used for collection of dust and wastes during processing of
grains.
• The application of cyclone separator is also made to separate out air borne material
from the discharge of pneumatic conveyor.
• In a cyclone separator a particle is acted upon by two forces, the centrifugal force
and the weight of the particle.
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Cyclone separator
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Cyclone separator
• The Separating force can be given as follows
• It has been found that as ‘S’ increases, the separation becomes more effective.
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Cyclone separator
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Air Screen Cleaner
• The air screen grain cleaner can be classified in two distinct types:
1. Vibratory screen
• The grain passes from the feed hopper over baffle plates to the upper
screen.
• Coarse impurities such as stones, straw particles etc. are screened off
by upper screen and discharged out through an outlet.
• The grain falls through on to the lower screen, where the sand and dust
particles are screened off.
• While passing through the funnel the grains are again cleaned by
upward draft of air in the ascending separator.
• During this process the remaining light impurities and shriveled grains
are sucked away and cyclone separator to which dust bags are attached
for the collection of impurities removes the light impurities.
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Rotary Air Screen Cleaner
• The rotary screen cleaner has normally circular decks. Their motion is circular in
horizontal plane.
• These have either single or double drum. A single drum rotary screen cleaner is as
shown in Fig.
• The machine consists of a rotary screen, aspirator and hopper and equipped with
an electric motor, which gives drive to the rotary screen and the aspirator.
• The mixture is fed into the hopper. The sound grain passes through the screen
perforation into the center of the screen drum, whereas oversized material is
retained above and passes out through an outlet.
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Rotary Air Screen Cleaner
• The sound grains come out at the center side of the screen drum
rotating at low speed and fall onto the vibratory screen which remove
the dirt particles.
• The light particles like dust and straw are sucked away by the aspirator
and discharged through the aspirator outlet.
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(i) Material factors: The various material factors that are taken into account while designing a cleaner
are described below:
(a) Compaction or bed density: The freedom of flow of material over the screen is greatly affected by
compaction or bed density. If the bed of material over the screen is more compact, its normal flow
over screen is restricted. The normal flow does not occur without constant changes in the relative
position of a particle with respect to its adjacent particles. At the same time materials having low
density also pose problem in screening due to fluffy nature.
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(b) Particle size and shape: There are two ways in which particle shape is related to its size that
passed or retained on a particular sieve.
• First, if all the openings in the sieve are square and having exactly the same size, the flattened
grains would pass diagonally through the opening.
• Secondly, some variation in size and shape of opening is unavoidable in the manufacturing.
Consequently, the size and shape of grain passed or retained would depend upon the number, size
and shape of the off-size openings.
• The shape and size of a particle are the deciding factors towards identification of proper sieve
configuration e.g. round, oblong, triangular etc.
• The size of spherical particles can be designated by diameter but in practice it is not true in case of
dry matter. There is too much variation in the shape.
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(c) Distribution of various fraction sizes: The distribution of various fractions of (straw,
node, chaff etc) of materials in the mixture greatly influences the separation.
(d) Stickiness and abrasiveness: If the particles tend to stick together these must be
separated. Material abrasiveness affects the selection of screen. Electrostatic charges built
up by mechanical action of sifting will cause the particles to coat or blind the screen. Such
particles cannot be dislodged by mechanical action. Besides the above, the moisture
content and crop species also affect the design of the cleaner.
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(a) Feeding mechanism: The feeding of material over the screen should be done
properly in order to obtain the maximum capacity and efficiency. The material
should be spread uniformly over the full width of screen surface. It should
approach the screen surface in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the
screen and at as low practical velocity as possible.
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(b) Size of screen surface: The size of screen surface is dictated by the capacity
requirement of the machine. However, two governing factors need to be
mentioned that the width of screen affects the capacity whereas its length affects
efficiency. Width is necessary to reduce the bed thickness to a practical maximum,
and length to allow the undersize to be removed without an inordinate amount of
fines in the oversize. It is also true that width does influence the efficiency and
length affects the capacity but only to such a minor degree that it could always be
neglected. The experience with both the quantities of width and length leads to a
general rule that the length of screen should be between 2 to 3 times its widths. In
paddy cleaner with vibratory sieves and aspirator, the screen area of 0.2 m2 per ton
of paddy is recommended.
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(c) Grain bed depth: A criteria for deciding the bed depth is that it should be one
particle thick i.e. all particles regardless of their size should be in contact with the
screen and none should ride down over the others. This is only possible with a
very low feed rate and capacity. On the other hand a bed is actually needed to keep
a particle in contact with the screen and also in contact with other particles
surrounding it. A general guideline for deciding the bed depth is that the thickness
of bed should not exceed 4 times the size of screen aperture for material weighing
1600 kg/m3 and 2 ½ to 3 times for a material weighing 800 kg/m3.
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The following methods can be used to control the bed depth during screening:
(i) At constant feed rate the bed thickness can be reduced by increasing the screen
slope.
(ii) At constant slope, the bed thickness is increased by increasing the feed rate and
vice versa.
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(d) Shape of the opening: The shape of screen opening depends upon the shape of
the grain to be handled. In general practice for round-shaped grain, the top screen
of round holes and bottom screen of slotted holes are used.
• The round hole top screen drops the round grains through the smallest possible
opening and scalp off materials longer than the desired grains.
• The slotted hole bottom screen holds up the round desired grain, but drops out
split and broken grains, small weed seeds and other undesirable materials.
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• Thus the smallest possible perforation is used for scalping, while the largest
possible perforation is used for grading.
• In case of elongated grains generally slotted top screen and slotted bottom screen
are used.
• For the specific purposes of separation, it may be necessary to use a round hole
top screen, but usually better cleaning is accomplished when both top and bottom
slotted screens are used.
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(e) Percentage open (perforated) area: The higher percentage open area increases
both capacity and screening efficiency. To ensure good contact and maximum
available use of plate area, holes should be spaced as close as practicable.
Triangular spacing is invariably used with holes pitched at interval, which are
multiple of hole diameter. The advantage of this method is that for a large plate the
ratio of hole area to available area is dependent upon only the pitch. But it should
be recognized that there is definite limitation to increase the open area. Excessive
loading in terms of strength means excessive cost of replacement, which might be
more than the saving resulting from increased capacity.
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(f) Aperture size: The size of screen openings depends upon the size and shape of
the grain. For the round openings, the size of scalping screen is decided slightly
higher than the equivalent diameter of the grain to pass through the aperture
whereas size of grading screen is kept small enough to retain the smallest desirable
grain.
(g) Stroke length: The stroke length of the screen also affects the separation
efficiency. The optimum value of stroke length for wheat grain has been
recommended as 17 mm to give maximum efficiency.
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(i) Vibration amplitude and frequency: The speed and amplitude of vibration should
be designed to convey the material properly and to prevent the blinding of screen.
These are more or less dependent upon the size and weight of the material being
handled and are related to the angle of installation and type of screen surface. The
objective is to properly stratify the feed over the screen for an efficient
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• The fast shake causes the seed to turn and tumble and present all their sides to
the screen openings. Fast shake speeds are, therefore, very effective in cleaning
chaffy materials.
• However, when the shake speed is too fast, rounds or heavy seeds tend to bounce
over the screen and are not sifted properly.
• The frequency of oscillation has a very significant effect on the grain losses in
combines.
(j) Number of screens: It is generally agreed that the most efficient screening results
when a series of single deck screens are used. This is because lower decks of
multiple-deck screens are not fed so that their entire area is used and because each
separation requires a different combination of angle, speed and amplitude of
vibration for maximum performance.
(k) Rate of forward travel: The rate of forward travel is completely an empirical
factor that does not lend itself to generalization because it depends upon both
machines and material characteristics.
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This indicates the travel of material in m/min. If the length of screen (in m) is
multiplied by 60 and divided by the product rate travel in m/min, then the result is
the retention time in seconds. This is useful in determining the capacity.
(l) Air velocity: The use of air in an air-screen cleaner is for removing the lighter
particles based on difference in density of the material. The air is applied either
before falling the grains on the screen or during the separation over the screen
through the openings. For paddy cleaner with vibratory screen and aspirator,
8 m3/min airflow rates per ton of paddy up to 8 t/h and 5 m3/ min for capacity
more than 10 t/h are recommended.
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CLEANING AND SEPARATION
• A screened surface contains a number of equally sized apertures. The surface may
be plane, horizontal or inclined or may be cylindrical.
• When solid particles are dropped over the screen the particles smaller than the size
of screen openings pass through it whereas larger particles are retained over the
screen or sieve.
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SCREENING
• When the feed is passed through a set of different sizes of sieves, it is separated in to
different fractions according to the size of openings of sieves.
• Screens along with an air blast (air screen) can satisfactorily clean and sort most of
the granular materials.
• The screens are generally suspended by hangers, and when an eccentric unit
oscillates this unit they have a horizontal oscillating motion and at the same time a
smaller vertical motion.
• These two motions cause grains to travel downward to the screen and at the same
time the grains are thoroughly stirred during the passage.
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SCREEN OPENINGS
• Screens are generally constructed by perforated sheet metal or woven wire mesh.
• The openings in wire mesh are square or rectangular. Some trade numbers identifies
the size and shape and their combination of the screens available in market.
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PERFORATED METAL SCREENS
i) Round openings: The round openings in a perforated sheet metal screen are
measured by the diameter in mm or inch of the openings. For example, 1/18 screen
has round perforation of 1/18 inch in diameter or 2 mm.
ii) Oblong openings: Two dimensions, the width and length of the opening designate
the oblong or slotted openings in a perforated sheet metal screen. While mentioning
oblong openings the dimension of width is listed first then the length as 1.8x20
mm. Generally the direction of the oblong opening is kept in the direction of the
grain flow over the screen.
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PERFORATED METAL SCREENS
iii) Triangular openings: There arte two different systems used to measure triangular
perforations. The most commonly used system is to mention the length of each side
of the triangle in mm, it means 9 mm triangle has three equal sides each 9 mm long.
The second system is to mention openings according to the diameter in mm that
can be inscribed inside the triangle. This system is identified by the letter V as 9V,
10V etc.
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WIRE MESH SCREENS
i) Square mesh: The number of openings per inch in each direction measures the
square openings in wire mesh. A 9x9 screen has 9 openings per inch.
ii) Rectangular mesh: The rectangular opening in wire mesh screens are measured in
the same way as square wire mesh screen. A 3x6 rectangular wire mesh screen will
have 3 openings per inch in one direction and 6 openings per inch in other
direction. The rectangles formed by the wire mesh are parallel to the direction of
grain flow.
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APERTURE
• It is the minimum clear space between the edges of the opening in the screening
surface and is generally specified in inches or millimeters. The open area of square
mesh wire cloth may be determined by the following equation
D = wire diameter
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Screening Equipment Classification
1) Grizzly
2) Revolving screens/Trommel
3) Shaking screens
4) Vibrating screens
5) Horizontal screens
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Ideal And Actual Screens
• The basic purpose of any screen is to separate the feed consisting of a mixture of
particles of different sizes into two distinct fractions.
• These fractions are, 1) the underflow, the particles that pass through the screen, and
2) the overflow or oversize, the materials that are retained over the screen.
• A screen can be termed as ideal screen which separates the feed mixture in such a
way that the largest particle of underflow is just smaller than screen opening, while
the smallest particle of overflow is just larger than the screen opening.
• But in practice no screen gives perfect separations as stated above, and is called
actual screen. The underflow may contain material coarser than screen size,
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whereas the overflow may contain smaller particles than screen size.
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Effectiveness of Screen
• If the screen functions properly, all material ‘O’ would be in the overflow, while all
the material ‘U’ would be in the underflow.
O = mass flow rate of oversize, kg/hr U = mass flow rate of undersize, kg/hr
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Effectiveness of Screen
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Effectiveness of Screen
The effectiveness of screening or cleaning efficiency for an air screen grain cleaner
as suggested by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is given below
Where,
E = fraction of clean seed at clean seed outlet
F = fraction of clean seed in feed
G = fraction clean seed at foreign matter outlet
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Problem: Wheat was milled in a burr mill. The ground product was later on analyzed in a
set of IS screens. The screen analysis is given in the following table. Calculate the
screen effectiveness of (i) IS 50 mesh (ii) IS 40 mesh and (iii) IS 20 mesh.
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7.5%
0.7%
0.4%
1.2%
0.7%
92.5 % = 0.925
99.3% = 0.993
0.023
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Then E = 0.993
F = 0.925
G = 0.023
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300 g
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0.989
0.914
0.034
= 0.879
=87.9%
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