Vitreosity as a Major Grain Quality Indicator—Upgrading the Grain-Cutter Method with a New Blade

Abstract

One of the main quality characteristics of cereals, especially wheat is its hardness which is closely related with grain’s vitreosity, one of the main quality indicators of a variety. Determination of vitreosity is usually done visually: namely, after the grain is cut with a commercially available grain-cutters, the cut can result in broken or crushed grains which disables the reading and hinders the precision and accuracy. Also, the moment produced from the manual force on the grain-cutter crank, needed to cut the sample of cca. 50 grains placed in the cutter is an average of 30 Nm. Due to the resistance of the grain, yank force appears. This force can cause the whole instrument to be displaced during cutting. To minimize the errors using a commercially available cutter, a new knife/blade has been implemented and tested. The blade of the new knife is turned at the inclination angle of 49° in relation to the cutting objects (grains). This design solution enables achievement of the grain “cutting”, not grain “tearing”, as observed with the existing commercial design solution. With the proposed new design solution, amount of the moment is reduced to 2.72 Nm and the yank force is completely avoided. Also, a significantly lower amount of the cutting force, on the knife blade is achieved. The results obtained with the new knife gave a better read, were more precise, and the gadget was easier to operate since it demanded lower force to cut the grains. The novelty introduced by this research provided better and more reliable insight into determining the vitreousness of grains. Providing a clearer cut and better readability, this solution goes beyond the current literature by reducing the force required for analysis and speeding up the analysis process.