Design And Fabrication Of A Mini Corn Sheller Machine

ABSTRACT

Mini Corn Sheller Machine was designed and fabricated at the department of Mechanical Engineering. A dry corn shelling machine presented in this paper helps to separate corn from the cob. The fabricated design consists of a body casing, drum, shelling unit, grain and cob discharge unit, machine frame, hopper (Feeding chute), bearing as some of the major component, It is powered by 2Hp electric motor connected via a belt drive which transmits torque from the electric motor to the shelling unit. A blower powered by a separate electric motor connected to the discharge unit helps to separate the unwanted particles from the shelled corn. The fabricated design was tested and found to be about 79percent efficient with operating capacity of about 63.95kg/hr. The design is relatively cheap, simple and portable when compared to imported product of similar capacity.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWELDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

NOMENCLATURES

CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION
• BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
• PROBLEM STATEMENT
• AIM OF THE PROJECT
• OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
• JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROJECT
• SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
• PURPOSE OF CONSTRUCTION
• IMPORTANCE AND SPECIFICATION OF THE PROJECT
• FUTURE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
• APPLICATIONS
• ADVANTAGES 0F CORN SHELLING MACHINE
• PROJECT ORGANISATION

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF CORN SHELLER
• OPERATION OF A CORN SHELLING

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

• MATERIALS AND METHODS
• PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
• DESIGN PRINCIPLES

CHAPTER FOUR

• MATERIAL COST ESTIMATION
• DESIGN AND CAD DRAWINGS
• DESIGN PROCEDURE
• DESIGN CALCULATIONS
• MATERIAL & MANUFACTURING

CHAPTER FIVE

• CONCLUSION
• REFERENCES

NOMENCLATURES

Quantity                                            Symbol                          Unit

Power of Electric Motor                             P                                    watts

Rotational speed of driver shaft                 N_r                                  rpm

Rotational speed of driver shaft        N_n                                  rpm

Torsional moment                                      M_t                                  Nm

Bending moment on shaft                 M_b                                  Nm

Combined shock and fatigue

Factor applied to bending moment  K_b                                      –

Combined shock and fatigue factor

Applied to torsional moment            K_i

Diameter of shaft                              D_s                                   mm

Allowable stress                                S_s                                   N/mm²

Speed of driven pulley                      S_n                                  rad/sec

Speed of driver pulley                       S_r                                   rad/sec

Length of shaft                                  L_s                                   mm

Weight of beater assembly                W_b                                  N

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                          INTRODUCTION

1.1                                         BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

Corn is the most important cereal grain in the world, after wheat and rice, providing nutrients for humans and animals and serving as a basic raw material for the production of starch, oil and protein, alcoholic beverages, food sweeteners and, more recently, fuel. It is because of the important place of maize that it’s handling, processing and preservation within the optimum conditions must be analyzed.

The problem of poverty, hunger and malnutrition would be alleviated if there is adequate production of corn, Corn also called maize plays an important dietary role in most parts of Africa, It is grown virtually everywhere, in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions where rain and irrigation is adequate (Messiaen, 1992), Tindall, 1983).

The major steps involved in the processing of corn are harvesting, drying, de-husking, shelling, storing, and milling. All these processes are costly and for the rural farmers to maximize profits on their produce, appropriate technology that suites their needs must be used. Corn processing not only prolongs its useful life but also increases the net profit farmers (users) make from mechanization technologies. It is in this line that one of the most important processing operations done to bring out the quality of corn is shelling. It is basically the removal of the corn kernels from the cob. This separation, done by hand or machine, is obtained by shelling through friction or by shaking the products; the difficulty of the process depends on the varieties grown, and on the moisture content as well as the degree of maturity of grain.

Corn is considered to be one of the most important staple crops in the world. People in some parts of the world actually consider corn as their survival food. According to the D-Lab corn Sheller writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Accessed on Oct 4th 2013), corn accounts for 43% of the Latin American diet. Because of the high need of corn grains, it leads to the invention of a wonderful tool called the corn sheller which helps in shelling the kernels from the cob as well as makes shelling faster and easier. It. The first ever corn sheller was invented by Lester E. Denison at Sayville Middlesex country, connecticus.

Today, corn shellers come in wide variety of sizes and types. From the simplest hand-held device to the more complex bigger self-feeding machines powered by steam, corn kernel separation has been successful since then.

1.2                                   PROBLEM STATEMENT

The factor among others has made the decortications of corn an important process that must be developed to enhance value addition and also remove human efforts and also remove human efforts and associated difficulties when using traditional method of shelling such as losses labour intensity, time consuming and low output capacity.

1.3                                                      AIM

The aim of this work is to design an improved corn shelling machine that operates with high efficiency and flexibility

1.4                                             OBJECTIVES

The specific objectives of the research work are to;

1. Design a portable corn shelling machine that will operate with minimum noise.
2. Construct a portable corn shelling machine that can effectively separate the corn from the cob.

1.5                         JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROJECT

Our design improves on the prior art because it is inexpensive, small scale, and does not need outside help to build. The materials and tools are readily available and do not require communication with external parties to be built.

Big commercial systems are simply too expensive of our target market. Even the hand cranked machines cost upwards from £130.

The mini corn Sheller is also a good low cost alternative but it requires the builder to have molds to make the concrete components. If the builder has access to fiberglass materials to make molds out of, it is easy for him to build the device. If he does not have access and buy the molds at through the United States, which may be very expensive. We aim to eliminate the need for molds and the need for outside parties. Our machine requires no foreign assistance at all. It can be built using local materials by the local craftsmen. There is no need for builders to communicate and interact with foreign parties.

Our approach to solving the corn shelling problem is to use the concept of the rubber tire design but make it affordable and easy to build with locally accessible materials. The machine itself is very easy to build, and requires few skills besides basic carpentry. Our concept does away with costs and complexity of is simple; extruded steel and other common components are easy to find. The concept is simple and the design is modular. So it can be expanded of higher through put is desired. Locally accessible materials may differ in different regions. So our design can be adapted to use different materials. The second component of our system is a device that separates the shelled corns from the shells. Prior designs for separation equipment use forced air to carry the shells away from the corns. Since forced air requires complex fan units and extra power. We designed a separation machine that does not depend on air currents. Our design uses the gravity property of the corns to separate them from the cob.

1.6                                  SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

A research-work for design and fabricate of a Corn Sheller consisting of feed hopper, shelling unit, separating unit and power system. The performance of the machine was evaluated in terms of throughput capacity, shelling efficiency, material efficiency and mechanical damage. Regression models that could be used to express the relationship existing between the Sheller performance indices, pod moisture content and feed rate were establish. This paper describes about the design of various components of Corn Sheller machine. Hence in this design of various parts are necessary, and design of various parts due to which the design quality of those parts will be improved. Overall, this project involves processes like design, fabrication and assembling of different components etc.

1.7                                    PURPOSE OF CONSTRUCTION

            This project is meant to achieve the following purposes.

(1)       To design and construct a corn sheller which is easy to operate with high degree of efficiency.

(2)        To save time and cost, with high degree of production volume.

(3)       To design and construct a corn sheller that would not have much breaking effect of grains, leaving the cobs intact during the process.

(4)       To design and construct a corn sheller that is economic and have little or no complication in maintenance

(5)        To design and construct a corn sheller with high percentage of local technology.

(6)         To design and construct a machine that is cost effective manual stress reduction.

1.8                    IMPORTANCE AND SPECIFICATION OF THE PROJECT

The importance attached to this design is the facilitation and the production of voluminous corn shelling without much time and without encountering much breakage of the grains of the corn in shortest possible time.

The specification was obtained considering the items or component used and the hopper and barrel dimensions put into consideration as well.

   1.9                                                      FUTURE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

The work has been a real challenge to execute as there were many practical design and fabrication problems along with cost constraints. The machine has a great future scope in any industry and for farmers due to its ease of use, moderate cost and simple design. The main constraint of this device is the slightly higher initial cost but the advantage lies in its low operating costs. Savings resulting from the use of this device will make it pay for itself within the short period of time.

   1.9                                                      APPLICATIONS

The machine can be used to peel the corn grains.

1. Used in agriculture industries.
2. Used in mills.

• The device can be very helpful to small scale farmers and domestic purpose.

1.10                          ADVANTAGES 0F CORN SHELLING MACHINE

1. The power consumption is less.
2. Easy in operation.

• Low cost

1. Simple construction.

• Easy to setup
• Light weight.

1. Easy maintenance.

1.11                                                      PROJECT ORGANISATION

The work is organized as follows: chapter one discuses the introductory part of the work, chapter two presents the literature review of the study, chapter three describes the methods applied, chapter four discusses the results of the work, chapter five summarizes the research outcomes and the recommendations.

CHAPTER TWO

1.0                                                    LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1                                           HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF CORN SHELLER

The modern corn sheller is commonly attributed to Lester E. Denison from Middlesex County, Connecticut. Denison was issued a patent on August 12, 1839, for a freestanding, hand-operated machine that removed individual kernels of corn by pulling the cob through a series of metal-toothed cylinders which stripped the kernels off the cob. Soon after, other patents were granted for similar machines, sometimes having improvements over Denison’s original design…