Umudike Journal of Engineering and Technology

Maize is a very useful plant for man and animal. It is a major raw material for industries, especially for production of starch, oil, protein, alcoholic beverages, food sweeteners and bio fuels. Its processing is laborious and time consuming. This mobile machine was designed to shell maize and to separate the cob from the grains. The shelling unit is made up of the shelling drum, which is a closed cylinder with four rows of square peg tooth. The driven pulley is fixed on the drum shaft. The power from petrol engine is transmitted to the drum shaft through the pulley and belt connections on the petrol engine and the machine drum shaft. The machine is operated by one horse power petrol engine. The other facilities include hopper, grains and cobs discharge units. The shelling drum with its crushing teeth facilitates the shelling operation through rotating at a reasonable speed of 300 r.p.m. The performance evaluation shows that; the shelling capacity of the machine is 600 kg/hr with shelling and cleaning efficiencies of 99.5% and 99.37 % respectively. The breakage percentage is 0.406%. The developed machine is capable of shelling maize efficiently and economically.