Development of Gender-Friendly Power Ribboner for Extraction of Green Ribbon/Bast from Jute Plants

Abstract

Jute (Corchorus Olitorius) universally recognized as a golden fiber is one of the important cash crops in eastern India. In jute plants apart from fiber, sticks also have diversified applications in various sectors. Therefore, an advanced fiber extraction machinery that can extract fiber through ribbon retting without breaking sticks is the need of the hour for jute-growing farmers. In the present study, a gender-friendly power ribboner has been designed, simulated, and developed by considering the anthropometric data of both male and female operators. The developed prototype consists of a pair of fluted crushing rollers with pressure absorbing unit, a pair of peeling rollers, a fiber conveyor, power transmission unit, and an electric motor. The structural analysis of the designed fluted crushing rollers showed that the designed model and selected material (nylon 66/6) can withstand 10 times more load than the actual. At the optimized conditions throughput capacity, extraction capacity, extraction efficiency, and ribbon losses of the developed prototype were obtained as 227 kg/h, 116 kg/h, 92.95%, and 5.3% respectively, while the overall desirability of 0.966 was achieved. Furthermore, with the adaptation of the developed machine, jute farmers can get approximately Rs. 525/quintal or 12% more income than the conventional practice.

Keywords

• ribbon extraction
• ribbon retting
• anthropometry
• finite element analysis
• extraction efficiency and ribbon losses