Index.htm Thr080.htm

CONCLUSIONS FROM LITERATURE REVIEW

1. It would appear that for rice, the use of a treadle thresher multiplies labor productivity by a factor of 2.3 over hand threshing.
2. There is a distinct lack of similar data relating to crops such as sorghum.
3. Asian treadle rice threshers would appear not to be suitable for threshing other crops such as sorghum, millets or wheat (different mechanism and also different threshing speed).
4. There do not appear to be any effective prototype designs or commercial production of man-powered threshers for crops such as sorghum and millets.
5. For man-powered equipment, the use of leg-power appears technically preferable to the use of arm-power, except for low power requirements. However it was not possible to find any experimental data comparing treadling with pedalling (or with rowing).
6. Using energy considerations, for the production of fine flour, the hammer mill is preferable to the roller-bearing plate mill; this is better than the journal bearing plate mill, which in turn is superior to traditional pounding.