The development of palm nuts
cracking and separation machine is a research work that aims at cracking palm
nuts followed by automatic separation of the resulting mixture of kernels and
shells. Before now, machines were developed either for cracking of the palm
nuts or the separation of the resulting mixture which resulted into a huge time
and energy wastage. In this article, however, a simple and cheap machine was
developed specifically for enhancing the production of high quality kernels by
cracking and separating nut simultaneously. Basic components like, steel
frames, 10 HP electric motor, steel drum, shaft loaded with 25 cm diameter
pulley and strikers, separation tray, hopper, etc were procured and coupled
together in accordance with the design specifications. On connecting the
machine to electricity, a certain quantity of palm nuts fed into the hopper was
cracked on passing through the steel drum and the resulting mixture transferred
to the separation tray where the kernels are separated from the shells. At the
end of the operation, a reasonable cracking and separation efficiencies of
about 97 % and 68 % respectively were achieved followed by a performance rating
of about 200 kg per hour. Owing to low capital investment required in the
procurement and operation of the machine, small scale- entrepreneurs, however,
have opportunities for economic survival.
