Design and construction of a pedal driven cassava peeling machine.

Abstract

Peeling of different vegetables and fruits has become a necessity prior to Consumption. As at today, cassava peeling is still largely carried out manually, it makes the process to be slow, labor intensive, arduous nature, and low productivity This work focused on the design and construction of a pedal driven cassava peeling machine which can peel a variety of cassava tubers. Most of the common peelers are electrically powered and hence depends on. electricity which in Uganda, is presently unreliable in supply or not available at all in most rural areas. The-unreliable power supply ½ scarcity and high cost of petroleum products necessitate the need to address this issue to certain extent by developing a mechanism that will make life easier in food processing for rural dwellers and improve their economic wellbeing A pedal driven Cassava peeling machine was designed, fabricated and tested. This pedal driven cassava peeling machine consists of pedal chain mechanism connected to the sprocket on the. shaft which turn drives the peeling drum; where the cassava tubers are peeled, about 1 1.0 kg of cassava tubers can be peeled per hour with a peeling efficiency of 583% and the machine' is cheap, economically viable and can be used by unskilled workers. The results obtained show that slight. increase. in. speed and peeling time increases the peeling efficiency, however, further increase beyond the maximum speed (50 rpm) reduces the peeling efficiency of the machine a significant flesh loss is realized from the machine.