Design, Fabrication And Performance Evaluation Of Oil Palm Spikelet Threshing Machine

ABSTRACT

The objective of this project is to design a threshing machine with high efficiency at low cost, reduce total time of threshing, produce hygienic and quality oil and also make it available to small and medium scale palm oil producing mills. The machine consists of inlet unit (bucket), threshing unit and discharge outlets for threshed fruitlets and empty spikelets. this design is such that maintenance cost and threshing 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 threshing chamber and discharge outlet are large enough. The results indicated that threshing efficiency of the machine is about 90%. The feed rate of the thresher ranges between 341. 4kg! h and 360.02kg! h, the output capacity ranges between 227.47kg! h and 275.78kg! h while the operating capacity is70.54g! s. Therefore, the palm fruit thresher is recommended for the small and medium scale palm oil processing industries.