Design And Fabrication Of An Automatic Garri Sieving Machine

ABSTRACT

This work is on fabrication of garri sieving machine. Sieving operation, occupy an important position in the effective transformation of dewatered cassava mash into garri. Three versions of the sieve were considered, namely: traditional sieve, improved traditional sieve and mechanized sieve. However, traditionally, it consumes time and energy. This machine was fabricated to overcome the time and energy consume by traditional sieve. This work uses the principle of slider crank mechanism which converts rotary motion of the pulleys to the reciprocating (sliding) movement of the sieving tray. The machine was tested and confirmed to have an output capacity of 100.59kg/hr and an efficiency of 75.7%, which makes it very adequate and capable for mass production.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                        INTRODUCTION

1.1                          BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Energy is the driving force (power) that makes man, machines and systems work perfectly and efficiently. And food is the major source of energy that gives man the ability to work efficiently. In Africa, especially in Nigeria, Garri is the major staple food for man to be productive and as a result, the production processes need to be improved upon and to be taking seriously to enhance mass production in order to meet up the demand of the masses.

Garri is the most popular of the Cassava products in Africa (Oluwole et al., 2004). It is a creamy-white, granular flour with a slightly fermented flavour and a slightly sour taste made from fermented, gelatinized fresh cassava tubers (ARSO, 2012). Cassava is the most perishable of roots and tubers and can deteriorate within two or three days after harvesting. In the words of Adzimah and Gbadam (2009), “the major limitation of cassava is its rapid post harvest physiological deterioration which often begins within 24 h after harvest”. Additionally, the roots need to have the cyanogenic glucocides reduced to a level which is acceptable and safe for consumption. For this reasons, cassava is usually sold as a processed product in form of garri, farinha, cassava bread, etc.

The processed involved obtaining the final product called Garri includes, cultivation, tuber harvesting, peeling, grating, dewatering (squeezing), sieving and drying (frying). The sieving process which forms the basis of this study, involves the separation f coarse particles that is, ungraded portion of the cassava lumps from time and smoother ones. this is done after the moisture content of the meshed or pulp have been reduced to about 35% or 40% in the process of dewatering, a small lump is put on the palm and squeezed. If it is sufficiently dewatered, it will disintegrate that is break into smaller particles easily. Then it will be put on the local filter where little force and motion will be applied by hands to sieve and the smaller particles goes beneath the filter.

1.2                                 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The separation of course particles, big lumps or unwanted materials or impurities from grams (cassava) has always been a serious problem as it goes with massive/tremendous stress when done manually. This study is intended to case the stress involved in sieving grated dehydrated cassava using an electric motor as a source of power.

1.3                   AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main aim of this study is to fabricate a fully automated cassava sieving machine. The objectives of the study are:

1. To fabricate the machine at low cost
2. To reduce human labour involved in sieving cassava

• To increase agricultural productivity

1. To make sieving of particles easy

1.4                            PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT

This study is geared towards producing an end-product of better and more uniform quality and to reduce the drudgery and labour intensiveness involve when sieving garri manually.

1.5                        ADVANTAGES OF THE PROJECT

This work will enhance and promote the establishment of economically viable small and medium scale cassava based industries that will mass produce garri (end product) and create new employment opportunities in rural areas.

1.6                       APPLICATIONS OF THE PROJECT

• It can be utilized for separation of mass produced different types of nuts in a single turn and also other solid mixtures with different sizes of mesh
• Different types of nuts can be separated which depends on mesh size
• It can be used for paddy separation with the involvement of fan at the base of
• Now days, separation of different sizes of solid material is need of hours, this project can be used for separation of different sizes of solid only by changing mesh of required
• Substance industry: resin, pigment, industrial medicine, cosmetic,
• Foodstuff industry: sugar powder, starch, salt, rice noodles, milk powder, soybean milk, egg powder, sauce,