Development of Electrically Powered Reciprocating Cocoa Pods Breaking Machine

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International Journal of Excellence Innovation and Development ||Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan. 2019||Page No. 016-020||

Development of Electrically Powered Reciprocating Cocoa Pods Breaking Machine O.O Caleb 1, B.O Akinnuli 2 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria

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Abstracts––Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) is one of the main cash crops exported from Nigeria to other countries. The removal of the beans from the cocoa pods has been done manually for a very long time which reduces the efficiency of the process and sometimes results in loss of an amount of the beans. This work considers the design, fabrication and cost of a simple reciprocating electrically powered cocoa pod breaking machine to facilitate the removal of cocoa beans from the pods. Electric motor of 1 hp power rate and 1400 rpm was installed. After evaluation of the machine, the seed damage percentage was found to be 0 %. This shows 100 % effectiveness while the efficiency of the machine was 93 %.The belt speed of 6.6 m/s was used with designed hammer weight of 150 N and the breaking rate per hour ranges from 3600-7600 pods depending on the size of the pods. The machine production cost was fifty-six thousand eight hundred Naira (N56,800) only equivalent of US$ 2,272 at exchange rate of N 250 per Dollar as at the time of this research. Keywords––Cocoa pods, design, estimation, reciprocating machine

fabrication,

Plate 1: Transverse Section of Cocoa Fruit (Source: Adzimah and Asiam, 2010)

cost

INTRODUCTION Cocoa is one of the cash crops of great significance grown in the world. In Nigeria, Cocoa is a prominent perennial cash crop planted in the south western part of Nigeria. Cocoa production has been a supporting factor for the economy of producing countries because of its high export earnings. The cocoa seed usually referred to as cocoa beans is exported to the western world for processing where several products are manufactured and imported back to Nigeriaand other developing countries at a relatively high cost (Adewumi, 1997). Cocoa is key import goods for consuming countries due to its various uses and its economic value. The cocoa fruit is made up of the pod, beans, husk, placenta and mucilaginous pulp which has a sweet juice called ‘sweating’ (Adzimah and Asiam, 2010). The cocoa pod is a berry which varies in size, shape and colour. The fully grown and ripe cocoa pod is about 15.24 cm to 32 cm in length, 7.62 cm to 10.16 cm in diameter at the centre (Adzimah and Asiam, 2010 and Ramji et. al., 2018). The pod takes about 5 - 6 months to ripen and Figure 1 and Plate 1 show the transverse section while Figure 2 shows longitudinal section of a whole cocoa fruit. The husk has an appreciable thickness. A pod contains between 30 and 40 beans usually with each bean surrounded by mucilaginous pulp (Adzimahans Asiam, 2010; and Ramji et. al., 2018). www.ijeid.com

Fig. 1: Transverse Cross Section of a Matured Cocoa Pod.

Fig. 2: Longitudinal section of a whole cocoa pod.

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