DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF AUTOMATED YAM COOKING AND POUNDING MACHINE

Abstract

This work is focused on the design and fabrication of automated yam cooking and pounding machine to perform the hygienic processing of pounded yam thereby eliminating the laborious process and also minimizing of time involved in processing pounded yam. The aim of this project is to design and fabricate a machine that will cook and pound the yam. During the design and fabrication of this machine, many factors were considered and these include cost of production, effectiveness of the machine, economic requirement and maintenance. The machine was fabricated using stainless steel, mild steel, pulleys, belt, bearing and shaft. A type A37 belt was used (v-belt), the depth of the bowl is 160mm, length, width and thickness of the beater is 73 x 30 x 3 mm. The cooking aspect and automated part of the machine includes; the heating element (electric heater), contactor, thermostat and timer. The diameter of the driving pulley is 150mm and the diameter of the driven pulley is 200mm. The test and performance evaluation of the machine was carried out at the University of Benin workshop. The result from the testing showed that the yam cooking and pounding machine produced a hygienic and well processed pounded yam in a lesser time. It totally eliminated the laborious process involved in pounding. The efficiency of the machine was 84.523% which is fair for a locally fabricated machine. Given that some percentage was lost due to the vibration from the motor.

Keywords: Yam, Cooking, Pounding Machine, Design, Fabrication, Automated

DOI: 10.7176/IEL/14-1-05

Publication date: July 31^st 2024