Development of a manually operated beverage filling machine.

Abstract

Uganda is one of the best fruit producing nations in Africa. Fruits are a source of income and very vital for human. health which calls for their processing into other forms like juices for continuous supply throughout the year together with other beverages. Dining packaging of beverages, small scale companies, outlets and restaurants normally use rudimentary methods which are time wasting, tiresome, dangerous, prone to -contamination and lead to both qualitative and quantitative losses. This in turn makes such companies fail to be certified by UNBS and gives a bad impression to the consumers, Therefore, the objective of the study was to design; develop an operated beverage filling machine for small scale beverage producing companies and individuals which -would reduce on the quantitative and qualitative losses. The design of the various machine parts was carried out by analyzing forces acting on them and the working environment of each part among other considerations. These considerations led to selection of proper to withstand the forces to avoid failure and also make the machine last longer. Steels of various grades were the main materials used because they are food grade, strong and durable- Engineering drawings of the different components were drawn before construction of the components. Then prototype assembly was done according to the engineering drawings. A fully functional prototype resulted after all the. above operations. The prototype was tested and it had efficiencies of 63.3% based on the design capacity and 95.37% based on the filling. accuracy. The machine had a maximum production cost of 861500shs and a projected payback period of three months of production. The results for the design. were discussed and; conclusions about the specific objectives were made, and recommendations for further work were also stated.