Size reduction of agricultural products is an
essential requirement for their processing and transportation. This research
designed and fabricated a manually operated and motorised cassava chipping
machine, which is adaptable to the local farmers at the cottage level. The
design was carried out by empirically computing the threshold force required for cutting the cassava
tubers, with a prior knowledge of the length (350 mm) and thickness (1.5 mm) of
the cutting blades as influencing indexes. Also, the capacity of the machine
was evaluated using six different cutting forces above and below the cutting
threshold force (68.99 N). The results show that the cutting force increased
exponentially with the length and diameter of the tuber. Also, less force was
required to chip cassava tuber with longer length and shorter diameter probably
due to the presence of inner and central crack defects, which is capable of
forming easy crack initiation points with the slightest blade effort. The size of the electric motor required was a single
phase 1 hp (4500 rpm), which is capable of powering the machine to an
approximate capacity of 225 kg/h and comparable to the required human effort. The machine
was also found effective in chipping cassava tuber to average size of 30 mm.
Konular | Makine Mühendisliği |
---|---|
Bölüm | Research Article |
Yazarlar | |
Yayımlanma Tarihi | 30 Ekim 2017 |
Kabul Tarihi | 11 Kasım 2017 |
Yayımlandığı Sayı | Yıl 2017 |