Development and performance evaluation of palm nut cracker

IBIKUNLE, R.A. and Ikubanni, P.P. and Agboola, O.O. and OGUNSEMI, B.T. (2018) Development and performance evaluation of palm nut cracker. Leonardo Electronic Journal of Practices and Technologies (33). pp. 219-234. ISSN 1583-1078

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Abstract

In this paper, palm nut cracking machine was designed, fabricated and the performance evaluation done using locally sourced materials. The cracking machine was developed to have the hopper, the cracking chamber which incorporates the shaft and cracking hammers, the outlet, electric motor, belt and pulleys. The performance of the machine was evaluated to consider the cracking time, the shaft speed and the throughput. At shaft speed of 800 rpm, the average cracking time and throughput values are 86.14 s and 11.606 g/s, respectively for 1 kg of palm kernel nuts. The average cracking time and throughput values at 1200 rpm and 1400 rpm are 59.54 s and 16.799 g/s, and 47.58 s and 21.061 g/s, respectively. The results obtained show that as the shaft speed increases, the cracking time reduces and throughput increases. The efficiency of the machine is averagely estimated to be 74.2%. The throughput of the machine is determined to be 75.6kg nuts/ hour. This mechanized system of cracking is faster, less tedious with increased rate of production compared to traditional (manual) cracking method

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