Design Modification And Development Of A Fish Feed Pelletizing Machine:-Dennis Prince

ABSTRACT

The design modification and performance evaluation of a fish feed pelletizing machine for low income farmers were carried out with the view to improve the performance of the existing pelletizing machine. The procedure of fabrication included welding, riveting, bolting and seaming was applied: the materials were locally sourced with a view to engineering standard. The machine was tested using different die diameters of 2 mm, 4 mm and 6mm. The test was conducted at different moisture content of 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30% and 35% wet basis. The machine test results showed that the pelletizing efficiency increases as moisture content and die diameter increase. The machine throughput also increases with both moistures. Content and die diameter. Highest efficiency of 98% was obtained when the moisture content was maintained at 25% wet basis and the feed materials were made to pass through 6 mm die diameter. Therefore, the improved fish feed pelletizing machine is recommended for use by small-scale fish feed production as the existing pelletizers have comparable higher losses couple with lower efficiency