RU2257703C1 - Method for determining of mechanical microdamages in grain batches upon harvesting of yield by combines - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: agriculture.

SUBSTANCE: method involves taking grain samples and determining amount of crushed grains in samples; subjecting grain to mechanical action by means of rotor of entoleter-sterilizer; taking samples once again and determining amount of crushed grain in samples; extracting amount of crushed grain produced before exposing it to the action of entoleter-stabilizer from resultant amount of crushed grain after exposing grain to the action of entoleter-sterilizer; comparing resulting difference with amount of grain crushed by means of entoleter-sterilizer, with admitted requirement being not in the excess of 1%; judging extent of mechanical microdamages in grain batches on the basis of amounts of crushed grain.

EFFECT: increased efficiency in operative determination and precise diagnosing of technical properties of wheat grain.

2 cl

Description

The invention relates to agriculture, in particular to a method for determining mechanical microdamage in batches of wheat and other crops during harvesting by combines.

Any mechanical effects on the grain of wheat and other crops reduce its strength. At the same time, mechanical damage with a violation (macrodamage) or without a violation (microdamage) of the integrity of the grain affects its technological and seed qualities. Microdamages practically do not change the physical and mechanical properties of grain, therefore, when sorting and cleaning, they remain in the grain mass.

Two methods are used to determine the number of mechanical microdamages to wheat grains: the first is organoleptic, the second is biological. Sometimes two methods are simultaneously used at the time of assessing mechanical microdamages of wheat grain (Methodology for determining mechanical damage to grain by machines and their effect on the sowing quality of seeds. M: Rosselkhozizdat. 1972).

Organoleptic is that each grain is viewed under a magnifying glass. A grain having microtraumas is isolated. Small microdamages of grain sometimes go unnoticed even under a magnifying glass, and also in order to detect larger damages, grain staining with aniline and other dyes is used, which facilitate the detection of microdamages, but make it difficult to isolate surface and deep microdamages. This drawback of staining is eliminated by applying double staining of the grain in a 0.5% solution of iodine, in potassium iodide, then the grains are washed with water and treated with 0.1% potassium hydroxide solution for half a minute and washed with water again. After double staining, all grains are viewed under a magnifying glass. Along with staining, a method of bleaching in boiling solutions of certain chemical compounds is used (a 2% solution of sodium hypochlorite or a 2-3% solution of potassium hydroxide). After boiling, the grain is washed with water and viewed through a magnifying glass.

The degree of damage to the surface of the grains is determined using a measuring microscope. Each grain is examined under a microscope from all sides, the type of microdamage is established, and the size of the broken grain surface is measured, the area of which is expressed in square microns. The degree of injury is expressed as a percentage of the damaged area to the total grain area of the average initial sample. Determining the degree of injury to the grain in this way is relatively accurate, but careful and time-consuming measurements, as well as additional calculations, are required. The methods of staining and bleaching the grain before viewing it under a magnifying glass increase the accuracy of determining the number of microdamage to the grain, they are used only in special studies with a small amount of work, since they require a lot of time to analyze and special equipment, dyeing and other chemical compounds (Method for determining mechanical damage to grain by machines and their effect on the sowing quality of seeds. M: Rosselkhozizdat, 1972).

The organoleptic method does not allow to determine the number of hidden internal injuries (dents, bruises, internal cracks), which can only be determined indirectly, by the magnitude of the reduction in germination.

The biological method is that the number of microdamages is judged by laboratory or field germination of grain. The disadvantages of this method is that it gives only the relative value of the amount of micro-damaged grain in the sample or batch, since the decrease in germination can be caused in part by other reasons (the presence of seedless, underdeveloped, damaged by pests or diseases of the grains, germination conditions), and not only mechanical damage. In addition, this method does not make it possible to establish the types of microdamage of individual grains, and germination determination requires 7-10 days and special equipment (Methods for determining mechanical damage to grain by machines and their effect on the sowing quality of seeds. M: Rosselkhozizdat, 1972).

However, this method remains the only way to determine the amount of hidden internal damage to the grain by determining the magnitude of the decrease in the germination of the externally whole grain that has passed through the machine, compared with the germination of grain of the control sample. When determining the hidden internal damage to grain caused by threshing with a threshing device, the germination of such grain from the combine hopper is compared with the germination of grain of manual threshing. Lesser germination indicates hidden internal damage to the embryo. However, the biological method does not reveal the presence of hidden internal microdamages of the endosperm and their influence on the structural, mechanical and technological properties of grain.

Recently, to assess the structural and mechanical properties of grain, and consequently, mechanical internal microdamages (indirectly), the hardness index has been used, for the determination of which many methods have been developed. The structural and mechanical properties of grain are judged by the energy consumption for grain grinding, the peeling index, the dispersion of grinding products (index of particle size of the HDI), the magnitude of the reflection of infrared rays. The use of infrared spectroscopy devices is constrained by their high cost. However, all these methods are used to evaluate pure breeding varieties.

To determine the structural and mechanical properties of grain, a device is used whose principle of operation is based on determining the strength of grains using a lever mechanism with a movable counterweight. Moving the counterweight on the lever guide, gradually increase the pressure force acting in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the grain until the deformation of the grain shell occurs.

To determine the strength of grains, the PMT-3 device is used, equipped with diamond pyramids. The essence of the method is based on pressing a diamond pyramid into a controlled sample with a force of 200 g and measuring the diagonal length of the remaining fingerprint. After that, microhardness is determined as the ratio of the indentation force to the imprint area (kg / mm ² ).

The closest in technical essence and the achieved result to the proposed technical solution is a method for determining the strength of individual grains based on crushing. Strength is estimated by measuring the relationship between the force and the time of crushing of wheat grains (Posnova L.P., Berkutova N.S. Modern methods for assessing the technological properties of wheat by hardness. M., TsNIIITEI bakery products, 1990).

This method is implemented in a continuous device CAST-NaT, which works as follows. Each grain is captured by a vacuum collector and placed in one of eight concave thickets located on the rotary disk. The rotary disc rotates in accordance with a given angle. The bowl is raised by a driven rotating cam to the crushing head. The relationship between force and time is recorded during crushing by a pressure sensor and transmitted through an amplifier to a data processing system. After measurement, the rotary disk is advanced to remove the crushed grain from the bowl with compressed air.

The disadvantage of this technical solution is that in the process of grain destruction by crushing it must be destroyed without fail, which means that it is impossible to determine the internal latent mechanical microdamage of grain, since the strength characteristics of botanical varieties of wheat grain are determined.

The aim of the invention is to determine the number of hidden internal microdamage in batches of wheat grain by mechanical destruction of the grain.

This goal is achieved by the fact that in the proposed mechanical method for determining the hidden internal mechanical microdamages of wheat grains after harvesting, combine harvesters use RZ-BEZ grain sterilizers (rotor speed 1200 ... 1800 rpm) or RZ-BEM flour (rotor speed up to 3000 rpm), which are intended for the disinfection (sterilization) of grain or flour through the destruction of pests, i.e. living organisms are destroyed in them. Consisting of a housing, working bodies and a drive. Inside the case, on the motor shaft, a rotor is fixed, consisting of two steel disks with a thickness of 5.1-5.5 mm and a diameter of 430 mm. Between the disks are two concentric rows of bushes (40 pcs in a row). The diameter of the bushings of the outer row is 14 mm, and the inner is 10 mm. The disks are interconnected by screws through the holes in the bushings. In which the grain of soft or hard wheat is subjected to impact under the influence of shock loads, if there is a latent form of infection of the grain. In this case, beaten or destroyed full grains after disinfection (sterilization) should be no more than 1.0% with grain moisture 16-17% and is a side effect of the disinfection process. To increase the efficiency of disinfecting and prevent repeated impact of grain on the rotor part, the inner surface of the reflective ring is made at an angle to the vertical axis in the direction of grain unloading (A. Demsky and other Equipment for the production of flour and cereals. Reference book. St. Petersburg. 2000 S.144-146). However, if the grain is “mechanically weakened” in strength due to mechanical microdamage, then the impact of the sleeves and the rotor ring of the entolitor-sterilizer of grain or flour causes destruction, i.e. the number of broken or destroyed soft or hard wheat grains will be more than 1.0%.

A comparative analysis of the proposed solution with the prototype shows that the claimed method differs from the known one in that the latent internal mechanical microdamage to the grain is determined by its mechanical destruction in the grain or flour sterilizer, and the amount of hidden internal microdamage to the endosperm is judged by the degree of grain destruction. Thus, we can conclude that the criteria of the invention "novelty" of the proposed method. A technical solution is known (Posnova L.P., Berkutova N.S. Modern methods for assessing the technological properties of wheat by hardness. M., Central Research Institute for Technology of bread products, 1990), in which hidden internal mechanical microdamage to grain is almost impossible to determine. The use of entoliter-sterilizers not only for disinfecting grain of a clear and latent (larva inside a grain) form, but also for mechanical destruction of grain in combination with other features allows us to conclude that the invention meets the criterion of "inventive step".

The method is as follows. To determine the hidden internal mechanical microdamage to the shell and endosperm, a grain sample with a moisture content of 16-17% is taken from a batch of 10.0 kg in five replicates according to well-known methods. Five control samples are taken in each sample, by means of which the amount of crushed grain in samples weighing 10.0 kg is determined. Further, this grain weighing 10.0 kg is passed through an entoliter-sterilizer of grain or flour (the speed regime of which is more stringent up to 3000 rpm), operating in a stable technological mode. After passing 10.0 kg of grain samples through the flour (grain) entolator-sterilizer, five control samples are taken in each sample, in which the amount of crushed grain is determined by well-known methods (Method for determining mechanical damage to grain by machines and their effect on sowing quality of seeds. M .: Rosselkhozizdat, 1972). From the value of grain crushing after passing through the entoliter-sterilizer, the values of grain crushing before passing are subtracted. The obtained value of grain crushing is compared with the value of grain crushing according to technical requirements (not more than 1.0%). If grain crushing is obtained in excess of 1.0%, this means that the batch of wheat grain is "mechanically weakened" in strength by hidden internal microdamages. And the larger the amount of grain crushing after skipping, the more grain is mechanically “weakened” in strength by hidden internal microdamages in batches of wheat. The percentage value of grain crushing judges about hidden internal mechanical microdamage of grain in a batch of wheat. If grain crushing is equal to 1.0% or less, then this is a grain of normal quality due to latent internal mechanical microdamages, and if grain crushing is more than 1.0%, then it is “mechanically weakened” by microdamage strength.

Using the proposed method for determining the hidden internal mechanical microdamage of the endosperm and casing of the caryopsis provides the following advantages compared to existing methods:

The mechanical method for determining the hidden internal mechanical microdamage to the casing and the endosperm of the caryopsis provides the promptness in their determination and more accurate diagnosis of the technological properties of wheat grain, which is very important in the future for surface treatment of grain, and also allows us to recommend more rational technological modes of grain processing by machines in processing technology grain into flour and manage the quality of threshing of the grain mass by combines during the harvesting period.

Claims (2)

1. A method for determining mechanical microdamage of grain during harvesting by combines, including mechanical destruction of grain, characterized in that first they take grain samples and determine the amount of crushed grain in the samples, then this grain is subjected to mechanical action from the rotor side of the grain or flour sterilizer and again samples are taken and the amount of crushed grain in the samples is determined, from which the amount of crushed grain is subtracted before the grain or flour passes through the entoliter-sterilizer, the obtained value grain crushing is compared with the value of grain crushing by the entoliter-sterilizer according to technical requirements of not more than 1.0%, and the degree of mechanical internal microdamage in grain lots is judged by the amount of grain destroyed. 2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that if the crushing of wheat grain is obtained more than 1.0%, then the batch of grain is considered "mechanically weakened" in strength by mechanical internal microdamage, and if the crushing of grain is less than or equal to 1.0%, then the batch of grain is considered normal quality for mechanical internal microdamage.