Design and fabrication of mini groundnut shelling machine

Abstract

Groundnut product demand is on the increase and the application is highly dependent on the cleanness of the nuts. The separation process is usually an energy sapping task that requires a lot of time. In order to separate nuts from its shells effectively a machine, a shelling machine was developed. The machine employs the use of shelling drum on which ribbed bars are embedded to break pods. The machine basically comprises of the shelling chamber and sieve plate connected by arranging a belt on the pulleys and powered manually. With von-mises equation, the material for the shelling shaft is taken to be mild steel. The material for fabrication of this machine was sourced locally so as to ensure that the machine is cheap, affordable and easily maintained by the peasant farmers. The shelling efficiency of 89.2% and the visible damage of 13.3%