Design and fabrication of a dual powered ginger pulverizing machine.

Abstract

Ginger is mainly grown in Central districts of Uganda, like Mpigi, Wakiso, Masaka, Kiboga, Mukono, Mubende, and Butambala. Ginger varieties available on the Ugandan market are; the Land race (local) with small rhizomes and Hybrid with big rhizomes. Size reduction of ginger in Uganda can be done by pulverizing. This can be manual method or modern method. The manual method being so tedious, labour intensive and time consuming is dying out with introduction of the modern electrified method which saves human energy as well as time. Electrically powered ginger pulverizing machines require a consistent reliable power supply which is not the case for most rural areas of the country, therefore in situation of power unreliability, these machines cannot be operated leading to delay in the production line. When electrically operated, the output capacity was 79kg/hr., efficiency was 64%. When manually operated, output capacity was 20.5kg/kg., efficiency was 55%. This report describes the design and fabrication of a dual powered ginger pulverizing machine. The machine aims at saving time taken to pulverize ginger, reduce the labour used, and solve problem of electricity unreliability. Chapter one of this report describes, background, problem statement, justification, purpose of study, scope of study, and objectives (main objective and specific objectives). Chapter two contains the literature that assisted in the design of this machine with emphasis on the morphology of ginger, its market in Uganda, post-harvest handling, ginger nutritional values, pulverizing technologies for ginger. Chapter three entails the methodology in which, methods, techniques, equations, and scientific principles are applied in order to come up with component sizes, and also to help in material selection. This section also explains performance measures (Output capacity and crushing efficiency). Chapter four digs deeper into the results and discussions; this section therefore explains the results arrived at in chapter three into details. Finally, challenges faced encountered in the course of the project, conclusion, and recommendations are all covered in this section.