Design, fabrication and testing of batched grain beverages processing machine

Abstract

Grain beverages are indigenous food product in most developing countries. In Nigeria, the production method is still at the basic level of using separate equipment for each operation. The research work was conducted to develop a batched grain beverages processing machine capable of integrating blending of soaked grains, mixing the slurry and extracting the aqueous liquid together. Some physical and mechanical properties of soya beans, sorghum and maize essential to the design of the machine were determined. Fundamental design analysis and calculations were carried out in order to determine and select materials of appropriate strength and sizes for the machine component parts. The major machine parts include water tank, outer casing, connecting pipes, temporary milled starch/milk tank, machine frame, detachable cover, cover screw handle, perforated basket, blending blade, perforated drum cover, muslin cloth inner casing (blending casing), inner casing cover, detachable cover, electric motor of 7.5Hp, pulleys, central shaft, V- belt and perforated drum teeth Assembly. The results of testing of the machine using soya beans revealed that highest blending efficiency of 81.11% from combination of blade with contact area of 1.32x10-3m2, speed of blending of 1100rpm and blending time 540sec while the lower value of blending efficiency of 52.85% was obtained from combination of blade with contact area of area of contact of 6.8x10-4m2, speed of blending of 1000rpm and blending time 420sec. The results of analysis of variance ANOVA also revealed that all the experiment factors have positive significant effects (p≤0.05) on the blending efficiency. The results of optimization of the machine functional parameters; blade area of contact, blending time and speed of blending carried out with goal of maximizing the blending efficiency produced values of 1.16x10-3m2 for blade contact area, blending time of 660seconds and speed 1200rpm with corresponding blending efficiency of 80.34% and desirability of 97.30%. The machine capacity and cost of production are 150 liters per hour and $396.93 respectively.