Design and Manufacture of Modern Barn and Rack for Curing Tobacco and Other Agricultural Products
Subject Areas :
Keywords: Efficiency, Tobacco, barn, Fan, Cerea,
Abstract :
There are various techniques for curing tobacco, based on specific variety and location. The time required to complete the curing process depends upon tobacco type, stalk position, ripeness and weather conditions. This study was done to determine the most suitable fan, reduce of production costs, quality improvement and determination of difficulties and benefits with 4 treatments and 4 replications in Tirtash Tobacco Research and Education center in 2014. The barns had 365cm length, 210cm width and 240c m height. The distance between the rows was considered about 40 cm. Three types of fan 8000, 12000 and 18000 cubic meters power air movement per hour were placed in the barn. Fourth treatment was traditional barn with stringing by hand (control). Times of yellowing, wilting, stem drying and leaf drying were same for all treatments. Average price of tobacco, sugar, nicotine, labor number, worker time, net income, energy and total costs were recorded. Results showed that use of the modern barn will be reduced production costs, number of labor and labor hours, energy, wastes and will be increased net income, efficiency and safety. Number of workers in modern method with rack and conventional barn were about 163 and 220 people respectively. The use of modern barn with 12000 cubic meters per hour fan power and rack system was the best treatment. This barn can be used for drying of other agricultural products for example: cereals, Bean, fruit, vegetables