Camacho, J., Lewis, R. and Dwyer-Joyce, R.S. (2007) Wear of a chute in a rice sorting machine. Wear, 263 (1 - 6). pp. 65-73. ISSN 0043-1648
In a rice sorting machine, rice grains drop onto and slide down an anodised aluminium chute. The purpose of the chute is to separate the grains and provide a controlled distribution. At the bottom of the chute the grains are examined optically and contaminants or defective grains are removed from the stream by jets of air. The machine has the ability to sort low quality rice which contains a large element of contaminants such as husk. The husk is extremely abrasive and this, along with other factors, can lead to a reduction in the life of the chute by wear of the surface.
In this work a failure analysis process was undertaken to establish the nature and causes of the chute surface wear and the mechanisms of material removal. Wear occurs initially at the location where the grains first strike the chute and at subsequent regions down the chute where bounce occurs.
An experimental and analytical examination of the rice motion on impacting the chute was also carried out along with some friction testing of potential replacement chute materials. The evidence gathered during the failure analysis along with the experimental analysis was used to propose possible material/design improvements.
|Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:||© 2007 Elsevier Science SA. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Wear. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.|
|Keywords:||rice chute, failure analysis, abrasive wear, erosive wear|
|Institution:||The University of Sheffield|
|Academic Units:||The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Mechanical Engineering (Sheffield)|
|Depositing User:||Sherpa Assistant|
|Date Deposited:||03 Dec 2007 16:18|
|Last Modified:||08 Feb 2013 16:55|
|Publisher:||Elsevier Science SA|