The aim of this investigation is to improve seed cleaner for better clean and grade by using physical and mechanical properties of flax seeds (Sakha 2-variety). The developed machine was constructed and tested at a private workshop in Kalubia Governorate to clean and grad flax seeds. The performance of the cleaning and grading machine was carried out to investigate some engineering parameters such as: three different feed rates of 1000, 1200 and 1400 kg/h., four different mesh hole sizes of 0.5, 1.1, 2.5 and 3.0 mm and four different vibration frequencies of 40, 70, 100 and 130 Hz. physical and mechanical properties of fax seeds under study, purity and grading efficiency were studied to evaluate the performance of developed cleaning and grading machine. The main results in the present study can be summarized as follows:-Physical properties of flax seeds: length (L), width (W), and thickness (T) were 4.38, 2.2, and 0.72 mm, respectively , volume (V) 3.631 mm 3 , geometric diameter (Dg) 1.906 mm, arithmetic diameter (Da) 2.44 mm, percentage of sphericity (S) 43.52 %, bulk density (Bd) 0.640 kg/m 3 , flat surface area (Af)7.56 mm 2 transverse surface area (At) 1.24mm 2 mass of 1000-seeds (Km)10 g and optimum moisture content (M.C) of 12.5 % for flax seeds .-Mechanical properties of flax seeds: the friction angle (Ψ) between stainless, metal and wood surface and flax seeds was 22, 34, and 40 degree, respectively, coefficient of friction for stainless, metal, and wood surface was 0.404, 0.675, and 0.839, respectively, the angle of repose (θ) was 30 degree, the terminal velocity (Tv) value to suspended flax grain (Sakha 2variety) was 22 m/s. and hardness of flax seeds was11.02 N. _ The higher seed purity was 99.33 % and higher grading efficiency was 99.69 % were reached using vibration frequency of 130 Hz, mesh hole size of 3 mm, feed rate of 1400 kg/h and moisture content of 12.5 %.

Spectroscopic techniques with near infrared (NIR) method has been used for the compositional, functional and sensory analysis of food ingredients, process intermediates, and final products all over the world. This study demonstrated a potential way to predict water content in potatoes (Diamant variety) using electric heater, spectroscopy within visible (VIS) and near infrared (NIR) spectral data.The data was selected to establish a prediction models to estimate potato water content (with or without skin). Partial least square regression was used to establish calibration models for predicting the water content in potato samples. Significant wavelength ranges of 750-900, 1000-1150 and 1350-1550 nm was used to predict potato water content without skin. On the other hand, significant wavelength ranges of 750-900, 1000-1250 and 1350-1550 nm was used to predict potato water content with skin according to the experiment results. For potatoes without skin, the R 2 values for prediction of water content was 0.994 and it was 0.997 for potatoes with skin. The residual error was found to be lower for validation set in both test sets using the select wavelength segments. Results also concluded that, spectrometer is accurate, easy and faster than electric heater for the same amount of potato.

The object of the present study was to investigate the effect of different drying methods on percentage and components of volatile oil distilled from some aromatic plants leaves. The natural sun drying at 30°C ±1 and the artificial drying using artificial batch dryer are the two different methods used to dry the leaves. Drying methods were carried out under three different levels of air temperature (35, 40 and 45 o C), and air velocity of (2 m/s), for different plants spearmint (Mentha viridis L.), sage (Salvia officinalis L.), and sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum, L. var. basilicum). The obtained results indicated that:-1-In natural drying, moisture content decreased from 88.7 to 13.7 %, 85.6 to 14.1 % and 89.2 to 13.9 % at drying time of 42, 46 and 44 hours for spearmint, sage and sweet basil, respectively. 2-In artificial drying the recorded drying times at drying air temperature of 35, 40 and 45 o C were 18, 16 and 14 hours for spearmint 20, 18 and 16 hours for sage, and 20, 18 and 16 hours for sweet basil moisture content decreased from 88.7 to 13.7 %, 85.6 to 14.1 % and 89.2 to 13.9 % for spearmint, sage and sweet basil, respectively. 3-Percentage of volatile oils distilled from the leaves of the studied aromatic plants, varied and it decreased as the drying air temperature increased over 40 o C. 4-The optimum distillation time to distillate volatile oils for dry leaves from spearmint, was one hour, while it was two hours for sage and sweet basil. 5-The maximum percentage of volatile oil components were obtained from artificial drying at 40 o C and sir velocity of 2 m/s. 6-Artificial drying of the studied plants at drying air temperature of 40 o C is recommended for shorter drying time, higher percentage of volatile oil, and getting dried plants without contamination.

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The aim of this research is to study the factors affecting a mechanical coating of fennel seeds. These factors are coating speed, temperature and time, and seed batch. The main results in this study were: The maximum fennel-seed germinations of 55.9, 61.2 and 42.9 % were obtained by using coating-unit speed of 28 rpm, coating time of 15 minute, coating temperature of 30 C o and coating with "Fe + Zn", "Fe + Zn + Cersan" and clay respectively. Meanwhile, the minimum fennel-seed germinations of 3.5, 4.5 and 1.5 % were obtained by using coating-unit speed of 36 rpm, coating time of 65 minute, coating temperature of 70 C o and coating with the same constitutions respectively. The maximum machine capacity of coated fennel-seeds of 4.8 kg/h was obtained using seeds-batch mass of 2.5 kg and coating-unit speed of 36 rpm. Meanwhile, the minimum machine capacity of coated fennel-seeds of 0.65 kg/h was obtained using seeds-batch mass of 0.5 kg and coating-unit speed of 20 rpm. The operation and production costs at optimum parameters (batch mass of 2.5 kg, coating-unit speed of 28 rpm, coating temperature of 30 0 C, coating time of 15 minutes and coating with "Fe + Zn + Cersan") were 10.63 L. E./h and 3037 L.E./ton respectively.