Design and construction of a manually operated maize dehusker cum sheller.

Abstract

Dehusking and shelling of the maize ears are done traditionally and separately by farmers. This called for the design and construction of the manually operated maize dehusker cum sheller for white maize variety. The different machine component were designed, drawn using solid edge software and fabricated which were then assembled to form a functioning prototype. This machine carried out both dehusking and shelling operations concurrently, and is cranked or powered comfortably by right handed farmers. Two operators, one for hand cranking and another for feeding the ears were required during the testing of the prototype. The output capacity with the machine was averagely 103.8kglh at a feed rate of'117.5kg un-dehusked maize ears per hour: The dehusking efficiency was 100 % for all the tests carried out and the average shelling efficiency of 97.4% at an average speed of 54.3rpm were obtained. The machine breaks evens in L366year.s, when 'evaluated economically, Hence seeming to be viable.