Modification of a Locally Made Palm Fruit (Elaeis Guineensis) Stripping Machine

Abstract

Palm fruit is an edible oil crop which needs to be processed for oil extraction. However, the manual method of stripping and the existing palm stripper are found ineffective due to prolonged stripping time leading to low quality and quantity of oil produced. Modern methods of stripping have greatly improved production rates and reduced stripping time. The main objective of this study was to improve on  the design of an existing palm fruit stripping machine so as to optimize its efficiency at low cost, reduce total time of stripping and produce hygienic and quality oil. The improvements on the design of the palm fruit stripping machine were achieved by increasing the throughput on the capacity by improving the material selection and other design criteria for various component parts. An adequate size electric motor to power the speed of stripping and a new stripping chamber were installed in the stripper. The machine consists of stripping unit, gear system frame, and discharge outlets for stripped fruitlets and empty bunches. The results of the improvements carried out on the design of this stripping machine shows that maintenance cost and stripping time are reduced, operation of the machine does not require special skill, the machine is easy and safe to operate, it is noise and vibration free, the energy required for loading and unloading have reduced since stripping chamber and discharge outlet are enlarged. The results indicated that stripping efficiency of the machine and the clean fruit recovery were 98.91 % and 96.03 %, respectively. The feed rate of the stripper ranges between 341.4 kg/h and 360.02 kg/h, the output capacity ranges between 227.47 kg/h and 275.78 kg/h while the operating capacity is 70.54 g/s. Therefore, the palm fruit stripper is recommended for the small and medium scale oil palm fruit processing industries.

Keywords: Design and fabrication, palm fruit, stripping, clean fruit recovery.