Design and production of a palm kernel cracking machine

Agricultural mechanization is taking the center stage in our today’s world, particularly with increasing population and dwindling food supply; it has become imperative to create easier ways of processing agricultural products through mechanization. In this research work ‘’Design and Production of a Palm Kernel Cracking Machine’’ a Palm Kernel Cracking Machine has been designed and produced. The machine has been used to efficiently crack palm kernels, which have various applications both at the household and industrial levels. The work started with the design of the machine which covered design calculations, materials selection, and engineering drawing using AutoCAD software. It was then followed by detail parts production and assembly to produce the complete palm kernel cracking machine. The machine was then subjected to no-load and load tests and the following results were obtained during the performance evaluation of the machine. Palm kernel nut cracking time was found to decrease as the shaft speed was increasing, and was lowest at 1600 rpm with a cracking time of 34.82 Seconds. Effective capacity increased with increasing shaft speed and attained a maximum of 86.16 g/s at 1600 rpm. The best operating shaft speed was however, 1000 rpm because split-nut loss was only 6.65%, un-cracked nut loss was 2.66% and the overall efficiency was 88.37%. The cost of producing the machine was $106.67 as compared to the imported machine which cost $240. It is therefore strongly recommended to produce this machine locally, so as to increase palm kernel nut processing in Nigeria.