Design and construction of an integrated honey processing machine.

Abstract

Honey is the most: important primary product of' beekeeping both from a quantitative and an economic point of view. Honey equally has colourful variety of uses. in other products for example in bakery, confectionery and in of cosmetics. Because of these important reasons honey is being. extracted (collected) to meet the demand both in raw form or as valued added to other products using rudimentary methods by the local beekeepers, this method is inefficient and time consuming. Various extractors that are used for honey extraction exist world wide ranging from manual operated to automated honey extractors, but they are expensive to. be afforded by the local honey processors in Uganda. The poor extraction and filtration processes of honey processing by the existing methods which have led to increased demand for high value: honey in the markets Warrants the development of- tow cost, locally made and portable integrated honey extractor that can be accessed by the honey farmers. This study therefore aimed at developing of honey processing machine that integrated the processes of honey processing; extraction, filtration, and clarification with heating mechanism. The availability of this machine improves the extraction and filtration processes relief the honey farmers of their drudgery in producing honey, create self-employment for the. jobless and finally increase the economy of Uganda through exportation of this 'honey and its products. The physical characteristics. of' the extracted honey (absence of defects, flavor & aroma, clarity, and viscosity) Were considered during the design and construction of this machine. The design was made simple and manually operated which can be installed at home or farm where breeding of honey bees is possible. It is a pulley and bevel gear driven system with pulley of smaller diameter 70mm and big diameter 210mm; and bevel gears of 1:1 gear ratio. The pulley system was mounted through bevel -gear shaft onto a vertical central -solid shaft of diameter 24 mm; to this shaft was the honey comb. frame holder of radial shape with four segments were welded. A full turn will give. the frame holder housed in a cylindrical container (drum) speed of 185 rpm when loaded. While the design driven force is 1138.89N. The mass of honey collected was2.03kg in 22- minutes while when using hand pressing, it takes l- 2 hours when 12 kg of honey combs are- extracted. This proved the local fabricated. extractor to be 34.5% relative efficient on half-toad of its capacity. The filtered honey was reasonably clear, with good aroma as compared to the one collected by hand pressing. The cost of production was Ug, Shs 474500; this amount took care of bought out component, machining, non- machining; and material costs. The only limitation is that it is not electrically driven, has the advantage of being used in both urban and rural areas where there is no electricity.