DEVELOPMENTOF COMPOSITE REINFORCEMENT FIBEREXTRACTOR MACHINE FOR BANANA PSEUDOSTEM

Abstract

The use of many products such as fibers from banana plant (pseudo stem) is becoming inevitable due to high demand for fiber in Nigeria. However, the means of extracting fiber and processing it is associated with various problems such as longer extracting time, poor production rate and treatment. Therefore, this study is targeted at overcoming the limitations associated with means of extracting the banana fiber and treatment that may be involved. In this work, two methods of banana fiber extraction were adopted: manual and mechanized method. Manual method involves the use of scrapper to force out the fibrous tissues in the pseudostem to extract the fiber while mechanical method involves the use of machine to extract the same fiber. In design and fabrication of banana fiber machine, various stages involved include selection of appropriate materials, design, fabrication and assembly of the various components of the machine parts. Two horse power(2 Hp)electric motor could be used to drive the machine effectively as it was achieved from machine design analysis. The total length of flat-belt to drive the pulley was 1.33m at an angle of lap on the smaller pulley of 2.58rad and velocity of4.46m/s. The resultant load of 292.2N act on a diameter shaft of 14mm with maximum bending moment of 17.946Nmand the torque required by rolling drum to pulp rib was 25.8Nm respectively. The machine was tested to ascertain the efficient of the device. At the design stage, the calculations of the length, width and thickness of the banana sliced stem were determined. The thicknesses of banana sliced stem used for this test was: 8.0 mm, 7.0 mm, 8.50 mm, 8.54 mm, 9.0 mm and 10.0 mm. The test was done on a steady voltage supply of 220 V single phase induction motor using a stop watch to determine the extraction time. The machine capacity was calculated to be 39.375 kg/h. From the test result obtained, the machine could extract a sliced stem of maximum width of 150 mm and thickness of 10 mm respectively, while the length varies. The alkaline treatment was done using 8% of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution to increase mechanical properties of fiber like strength and luster.