Technical Report Writing ME3082

Peanut Shelling Machine

By Contribution to the report 50% 50%

Index No. 090160U 090170B

Name N.P.A. Gunasekera V.H.Hapuarachchi

Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka Deadline: 08.15 hrs on 2nd April 2012

Acknowledgement
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Prof..M.A.R.V. Fernando, Mr.S.A. Nanayakkara and Dr.V.P.C. Dassanayake H.O.D of Mechanical Engineering Department of University of Moratuwa for providing me an opportunity to do my project work on "Peanut De-Shelling. This project bears on imprint of many peoples. I sincerely thank to my project guide Dr.H.K.G. Punchihewa, Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Moratuwa, for guidance and encouragement in carrying out this project work I also wish to express my gratitude to the officials and other staff members of Mechanical Engineering Department who rendered their help during the period of my project work. My special thanks to Mr.K.H. Janaka Mangala lecturer on CAD/CAM software of the Mechanical Engineering Department for their kind co-operation to the completion of my project work. Last but not least I wish to avail myself of this opportunity, express a sense of gratitude and love to my friends and my beloved parents for their manual support, strength, and help.

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Summary
Peanut is a versatile food item which has a variety of food products. In Sri Lanka demand for peanuts is higher than the production. The traditional methods involved in peanut processing tend to degrade the peanut production of the country. Small crop owners use conventional hand de-shelling methods. In this project we are designing a machine to automate the de-shelling process of peanuts.

This device is used for shelling and cleaning nuts in a single step which includes a cleaning section, mounted in the end, communicating with a shelling section, which removes debris, small pods and loose shelled kernels using screens, separating air columns, and stepped rollers. A shelling section that shells nuts and separates the kernels from mixtures of pods, hulls, and kernels using separating air blower mounted below and in communication with the de-shelling unit. A single step process performed by the device significantly reduces hand labour and time.

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CONTENTS

List of figures & tables ................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 2 2. Literature review ....................................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Current production of peanuts ............................................................................................ 3 2.2 User need analysis .............................................................................................................. 4 2.3 Currently used methods ...................................................................................................... 4 3. System design and methodology ............................................................................................... 5 3.1 Physical properties of peanuts ............................................................................................ 5 3.2 Experimental data ............................................................................................................... 5 3.3 Engineering perspective ...................................................................................................... 6 3.4 Functional analysis of the process ...................................................................................... 6 3.5 Methodological chart .......................................................................................................... 9 3.6 Concept generation ........................................................................................................... 10 3.7 Final selection ................................................................................................................... 11 4. Final design...............................................................................................................................12 5. Summary of calculation and component specifications .......................................................... 15 6. Design improvements .............................................................................................................. 16 6.1 The roller........................................................................................................................... 17 6.2 The feeder ......................................................................................................................... 18 6.3 The blower ........................................................................................................................ 18 6.4 The wire mesh ................................................................................................................... 19 6.5 The structural frame .......................................................................................................... 19 7. Manufacturing process for custom made components..............................................................20 8. Conclusion................................................................................................................................21 9. References.................................................................................................................................22

LIST OF FIGURES

1. FIGURE 01 peanut de-shelling machine..................................................................1 2. FIGURE 02 manual de-shelling machine.................................................................4 3. FIGURE 03 centrifugal crushing..............................................................................8 4. FIGURE 04 isometric view 01................................................................................12 5. FIGURE 05 isometric view 02................................................................................12 6. FIGURE 06 isometric view 03................................................................................13 7. FIGURE 07 hopper.................................................................................................13 8. FIGURE 08 rollers and the feeder blade.................................................................14 9. FIGURE 09 blower.................................................................................................14

TABLE OF CONTENT
1. Table 01 machine components.................................................................................1 2. Table 02 methodological chart.................................................................................9 3. Table 03 concepts....................................................................................................10 4. Table 04 design matrix............................................................................................11 5. Table 05 component specification...........................................................................15

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1. INTRODUCTION
Peanuts are one of the popular oil seeds known worldwide. They are rich source of minerals like copper, manganese, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium as well as contain many health benefiting nutrients, antioxidants and vitamins that are essential for optimum health. We can manufacture many value-added products from peanuts which have a number of applications including bakery, confectionery and the general consumer market. Among these peanut floor, peanut oil, peanut butter, roasted peanut are popular. Peanuts are found underground attached to a tendril-like stem called a peg. Peanuts do not develop on underground roots, but on plunging flower stems. The peg grows from the green part of the plant, through the air, and into the ground, where it burrows down and forms the peanut pod. Once in the soil, the peg orients itself horizontally and forms a single shell containing 1-5 seeds we call pea-nuts.

FIGURE 01 Peanut de-shelling machine

TABLE 01 machine components Page 2

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Current production of peanuts
If we consider the Asian countries involved in peanut production China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar are leading the overall world production. Current import market price for peanut is varying between $900-1200 /Metric Ton for those countries, which is approximately Rs.105-140/ Kg. Existing market price for peanuts in Sri Lanka is Rs.250-300/ Kg which is almost thrice in price. It is obvious that importing peanuts are cheaper than cultivation. Even though the demand is high this lack of interest in peanut farming is attributed to the fact that the shelling peanuts, as well as processing techniques are slow and difficult. Again peanut farms are considerably small due to lack of involvement by the farmers. According to the information of Grain Legumes and Oil Crop Research and Development Centre, there is a 2% drop in peanut cultivation in 2009 compared to 2008.

2. User need analysis

Sri Lankan peanut cultivation is limited, localised and followed by small to medium scale. Peanut shelling machines available in the market are very expensive as well as high rate of processing such as 1000-1500 kg/hr. Since our crops are in small scale such a machine useless since its higher performance machine idle time will be higher. For survival of the peanut farmers its necessary to implement a cheap, sustainable efficient method for peanut processing in small scale. Our main targeted community is the farmers who use manual techniques for shelling process In the manual process labour involvement is higher and process speed is considerably low. Manual driven de-shelling machines have low production quality as their recovery rate varying between 68-75 %. Since the machine is used by farmers, they dont have a solid knowledge in technology and machine aspect. So operating methods must be simplified and must have a user friendly interface. Its better if we can avoid maintenance in regular basis. Expected machine specifications High quality control Moderate production rate (150 250 Kg/hr ) Affordable price Ease of maintenance

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3. Currently used methods

Peanuts are a women's crop in a small farmer production system. In peanut production, women are involved at all stages of crop production, processing and food preparation. They have to do separation, grading, cleaning and sorting manually. Men are involved in heavy work such as cultivating and harvesting. Some small crop farmers still use the hand shelling where job relegated to women and children. Traditionally, farmers shell peanut manually. Manual shelling of sundried and flatbed dried peanuts gave similar average recoveries of 68%. For this they are using hand power simple machine to crush peanuts. Hand shelling is the preferred method of obtaining peanut seeds which protect seeds from being broken.

FIGURE 02 manual de-shelling machines

Disadvantages of manual de-shelling methods

Manual de-shelling process is labour intensive Availability of labour pool Slow processing speed with lesser quality Low production rate and less efficiency

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3. SYSTEM DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

1 Physical properties of peanuts
Peanuts outer shell has two halves joined along the split line. We can de-shell easily by applying a small pressure to the split line. When we continue to apply force peanut shell starts opening. Then we can split two halves by applying the pressure to the transverse direction. That is the usual way of hand shelling. We found experimentally that both crushing and twisting is exceptionally effective to de-shell peanuts. Crushing action relates to the pressure applying across the split line. Twisting action is equivalent to the force acting in transverse direction.

Experimental data
We took a peanut with the shell and put it in the palm and then applied a crushing force by pressing

both palms together. Now the grip of the split line was loosed. As the twisting action we rolled the peanut along our palm. This action caused to pry the shell from the nut. Then we consider the other facts which affect the properties of shells. We realised the moisture content of the peanuts have a strong affect on breaking the shell. Dryness of the shell increases the rigidity of shell which helps to break shells easily. It reduces the tensile strength rapidly. We took a peanut four samples of peanuts and two samples soaked in water and washed. Then dry all four samples under sun. We dry them for five days. When drying we took one soaked sample and one normal sample, then kept it for drying on a metal sheet. We kept the other two samples on a piece of cloth. We took peanuts from each sample in everyday and compared the rigidity of each other. Surprisingly in two days time both soaked and dry peanut sample kept in the metal sheet displays equal amount of rigidity which is even higher than the dry sample kept on cloth. They reached their maximum dryness factor in day four. In the day five results were almost same as the day four. After four days the peanut shells became so crunchy and we could break the shell in to pieces even in a small amount of pressure applied from finger tips. So we assumed that both peanuts have equal moisture content after drying under sun for four days. But it took four days for dry and wet peanuts sample kept in the cloth to displayed equal amount of rigidity and stiffness which is considerably lower than the samples which kept in metal sheet. Even though it took four days its rigidity is considerably low compared to other two samples.

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Engineering perspective

The peanut de-shelling machine is used in small crop owners.. Hand de-shelling Usually women and children contribute for the de-shelling process Hand shelling process rate = 5-10 kg/hr Quality assurance for hand shelling (avoid kernel splitting) = 98% Working rate = 6-8 hrs per day Working rhythm is repetitive

Manual de-shelling machine Machine is operated by male Manual driven machine process rate = 50 70 kg/hr Quality assurance for manual driven machine = 65-70 % Machine run time = 10-15 hrs per day Size is portable

Functional analysis of the process

Before generating concept we divided the whole process into sub processes and analysed each process for a design solution. Loading dried peanuts with shells

Pre-cleaning

Shelling peanuts

Packaging

Grading nuts according to sizes & quality

Screening nuts shells

from

Removing the skin of the peanuts

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A. Loading dried peanuts with shells We had two solutions for this process, Hopper method Conveyor belt method

In the conveyor belt method we use a belt to carry peanuts to the machine. From this method we are able to load peanuts to the belt in the ground level. But this has many disadvantages since we are building a low cost solution. Machine cost and dimensions are higher compared to the hopper method. This method is recommended for higher production rate. Hopper method is loading peanuts directly to the machine. In this method operator needs to be near the machine always to add peanut in regular intervals to the machine. This method is straight forward and cheaper solution. The main disadvantage of this method is operator needs to climb high to input peanuts. Since the production rate is moderate this method is more applicable.

B. Shelling peanuts We came up with three design solutions.

I.

Roller method Rotating rollers used to perform crushing and twisting action. We can use a combination of three

rollers. Peanuts subjected to crushing in first two rollers and then peanuts are twisted through rollers. This method is a continuous process. So its simple in operating. We have to design the rollers such that they are capable of supplying necessary forces.

II.

Screw type crushing

Peanuts are guided along a rotating screw thread inside a cylinder. The diameter of the inner screw is increasing so that the peanuts are subjected to crushing force and rubbing the inner surface of the cylinder creates twisting torque. This method has certain limitations. The method is too complicated such that its hard to monitor and control the process. There are issues with continuity of the process since blockages can be occurring inside the screw and cylinder. So quality control is difficult. Eventually its expensive with no benefits.

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III.

Centrifugal crushing

The central shaft rotates in high rpm. Peanuts are poured down the centre of the centrifuge. Then the centrifugal force induced is use to impact the peanuts outward, smacking the wall of the cylinder. Since peanuts have lesser mass (Mavg = 3-4 g) their inertia isnt sufficient for creating necessary force to crush peanuts.

FIFURE 03 centrifugal crushing

C. Screening nuts from shells

We got two ideas for separation, Wind separation: Free falling peanuts and shells are subjected to a air flow so that it drives away light weight shells along with the flow. Shells are 10 times lighter compared to nuts. So this method is effective. It can be easily implemented as a continuous process.

Water separation: Peanuts gets drown while shells float. Using this characteristic we can separate nuts from shells. But in this method it must be followed as a batch process. Nuts are getting wet is another disadvantage.

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5.

Methodological chart

Sub functions

Option 1 Hopper

Option 2 Inclined conveyor belt

Option 3

Feeding peanuts

Rollers

Centrifugal crushing Screw crusher

De-shelling

Wind separation

Water separation

Screening

Wire mesh

Cleaning

TABLE 02 methodological chart

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6.Concept generation
We came up with three different concepts by combining all those solution.

Sub functions

Concept 1 Hopper

Concept 2 Hopper

Concept 3 Inclined conveyor belt

Feeding peanuts

Rollers

Centrifugal crushing

Screw crusher

De-shelling

Wind separation

Wind separation

Water separation

Screening

Wire mesh

Wire mesh

Wire mesh

Cleaning

TABLE 03 Concepts

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7.Final selection
When selecting the optimum solution we used design matrix methodology under following criteria. Criteria Ability to break the shell Separate the shell from nuts Quality control Efficiency Cost Size Manufacturability Portability Safety Ease of operation Total score Option 1 29 17 8 8 8 9 9 8 8 9 113 TABLE 04 design matrix According to the design matrix we select our optimum solution as the concept 1. Option 2 21 17 8 7 6 5 6 6 7 7 90 Option 3 22 15 7 7 4 8 5 4 7 8 87

Peanut feeding

De-shelling

Screening

Cleaning

Hopper method

Roller crushing

Wind blower

Wire mesh

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4. FINAL DESIGN

FIGURE 04 Isometric View 01

FIGURE 05 Isometric View 02

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FIGURE 06 Isometric View 03

FIGURE 07 Hopper

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FIGURE 08 Rollers and the feeder blade

FIGURE 09 Blower

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5. SUMMARY OF CALCULATION AND COMPONENT SPECIFICATIONS

MACHINE COMPONET

SPECIFICATION

Power output 0.18W Main motor Full load speed 705 rpm Frequency50Hz Operating voltage 240V Input power 440W Wheel gear Number of teeth 20 Material- Hardened steel Module 2mm Face width 36mm Rotating speed 24rpm

Worm and Wheel

Worm Number of starts 2 Lead angle 12.50 Rotating speed

V-belt (Motor and worm)

Speed reduction ratio 2 smaller pulley 700 Smaller pulley diameter 80mm Larger pulley diameter 160mm centre distance 500mm No. of belts 1 belt length V-belt 1380mm Thickness 2.4mm Width 20mm Pulley width 33mm Belt type LF10 Material : surface nylon fabric, drive surface leather

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Diameter 20mm Roller shafts Thickness 15mm Material AISI 347 annealed stainless steel Between rollers Spur gears Module 2.5mm Face width 15mm Material : AISI 347 annealed stainless steel Between Feeder blade Module 1.25mm Face width 15mm Material : AISI 347 annealed stainless steel

Pillow block

Roller shaft Bearing : SSUCTPP204 (Selected from a catalogue by KML) Pillow block housing TPP204 Bore diameter 20mm Thickness 27mm Feeder shaft (Selected from a catalogue by KML) Bore diameter 10mm

Bearing : SS6000

Roller chain and sprocket wheels

Driver shaft speed 35rpm Driven shaft speed 15 rpm Centre distance 316 mm Roller chain chain type 05B Pitch 8mm No. of chain links 125 Length 1000mm Sprocket wheel Larger sprocket wheel teeth 63 smaller sprocket wheel teeth 27

TABLE 05 components specifications

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6. DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS
The rollers

Rollers must be able to apply required amount of crushing force as well as twisting torque. In order to do that we are using friction force and the normal reaction acting due to rubbing.

Friction angle Steel Rubber Wood

Min. 30 36 36

Max. 32 38 32

Avg 31 37 34

rubber

= 0.75

steel

= 0.614

wood = 0.67

Upper rollers are made out of rubber and the lower roller is made out of steel. Stage 1 Crushing When the peanut enters between two rollers which are made out of the same material, same frictional forces (F1) are applied between surfaces. So there will be no twisting occurs in the peanut due to friction. The gap between the rollers (0.9cm) has been specified to avoid damaging nuts. Average diameter of a peanut seed (D) = 0.7 cm Average length of a peanut seed = 1.4 cm Thickness of the shell (t) Void space parameter (Vs ) Average diameter of the shell (dp) = 0.1 cm = 0.2 cm = D + 2t + Vs = 1.1 cm

Peanuts are forced to go through rollers due to inward rotation motion. So peanuts are crushed because of the normal reaction (R1) between the surfaces of the peanut and the rollers. Since the gap between the rollers (0.9 cm) is same as peanut size excluding void space (0.9 cm) the peanut gets crushes when moving through the upper rollers.

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Stage 2 Twisting

After the stage 1, peanuts are entered between the steel roller and the rubber roller so the frictional forces which apply on the peanut are different due to the different frictional coefficients. In this case a twisting torque is applied on the peanut surface due to the force difference.

Roller surfaces:

In order to get better results the upper roller surfaces can be knurled. This texture helps to remove the shell easily by hooking shells to the roller surface.

The feeder So when they move

The peanuts we loaded into the hopper get piled up inside the hopper.

downwards, they get stuck between the rollers disorder manner. In order to prevent piling of peanuts we have designed the feeder to add peanuts into the rollers by regular intervals. Feeder consists of four blades where they rotate 90 in one second and rest for three seconds. They complete one rotation in each 16 seconds. This method loads peanuts into the rollers in an orderly manner. Feeder shaft and the driver shaft are located in about 320mm distance away. Feeder is rotating slowly and rotation isnt necessary to be smooth. So we thought of using a roller chain and sprocket wheels to transmit power between low speed drives.

The blower

After shelling from rollers we have a free falling mixture of peanuts and shells contaminants. The maximum size of a shell cannot be exceeded the size of the square mesh. Then we separate the peanuts from the shell by blowing air flow. The nuts weigh 10 times heavier than the shells. So they flow away with the air flow.Air flow rate is calculated so that maximum possible shell must flow away and minimum possible nut shouldnt float. According to those boundaries we calculated the air flow velocity range. 3.532 ms-1 air flow velocity 12.925ms-1 We choose air flow velocity to be 5 ms-1 and the corresponding air flow rate is approximately 2500 CFM. According to those figures we choose a axial blower fan. Radial blower fans are used for higher flow rate and higher air flow velocity.

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The wire mesh

Wire mesh is used to further cleaning contaminants. Considering the geometry of the nuts square wire mesh must be able to hold nuts while screening contaminants away. So the wire mesh should have a maximum of 5 mm 5 mm grid size. This is food production machinery, so that the wire mesh must be corrosion resistive. When we consider materials stainless steel is expensive. Since peanuts are weighing less mesh doesnt undergo large amount of stresses. So we can use plastic net for screening process which costs less.

The structural frame

This machine assembly doesnt undergo huge amount of stresses. So for the frame structure we selected galvanized steel tubes. Galvanization is compulsory to avoid corrosion. Structural members are welded together to obtain desired frame structure.

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7. MANUFACTURING PROCESS FOR CUSTOM MADE COMPONENTS

1. Hopper frame: Base material we use for manufacturing is sheet metal. Again galvanization is important. Joining method of the each sheet is riveting.

2. Feeder blades:

Feeder blades are manufactured by aluminium sheets. We weld the blades together to the shaft.

3. Rollers:

The structures of the rollers are consists with shaft, wheel and the steel tube. Steel tube is welded to the wheel and wheel is fixed the shaft with a keyway. Roller tube can be manufactured by extrusion. For further improvement we can knurl the roller surface.

4. Roller housing: Roller housing is consists with two halves which have complicated shapes. Housing is used to avoid disorder spilling of peanuts and shells. So it doesnt apply any stress or forces on the housing. We can use the base material as thermo plastic and easiest manufacturing method is injection moulding.

5. Bearing housing: This also have a complicated shape. Compared to the roller housing, bearing housing undergo certain amount of stresses and forces. So the base material should be hard and stiff. We can use power metallurgy process to manufacture bearing housing easily.

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8. CONCLUSION
This project was carried out to design a machine which can be automated the peanut de-shelling process for the small to medium scale crop farmers. This machine limits to a light budget due to that reason. So machine component was carefully selected to make the manufacturing cost as low as possible. The power source of the machine is an AC motor. Spur gears, worm and wheel, roller chain and sprocket wheel, belt drives are used as the power transmission methods. The power consumption of the machine is 180W. We have to manufacture feeder blades, structural frame, rollers, roller housing and the bearing housing separately. All the other components we include are available in standard size.

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9. REFERENCES
[1]. Baldwin, John and John Beasley. Saving Peanut Seed. Internet: http://commodities.caes.uga.edu/fieldcrops/Peanuts/pu2005/savingseed.htm, [September, 2005]. [2]. Georgia Peanut Producers Association. Ground-breaking grower. Internet: http://www.georgiapeanuts.org/articles/su03-ground-breaking.html, [August, 2005]

[3]. Joseph Mich. Moisture measurement-peanut. England: Agric, 1994, pp.477- 478

[4]. Awady,M.N and A.S.El-Sayed.(1994). Separation of peanut by air Stream.[On-line]. 6(2).

[5]. Chen C.C., L.H.Lu and T.H.Chen. Study on physical properties of peanut-pud system. China: J. of Agric.Res, 1989, pp. 127-129. [6]. FAOCultivated area of agric. crops. Internet: http://www. org./docrep/v9998e/v9998 Oe.htm, Oct. 12, 2008.

[7]. Hummeida M.A. and M.A.Ismail. Determination of equilibrium moisture content of peanuts, Latin America: Agric.Mech, 1989, pp. 53-58

[8]. Helmy, M.A. Determination of static friction of agricultural products on various surfaces, England: Misr J. of Ag, 1995, pp. 267-282

[9]. Harmond,J.E., N.R.Braandenbug and L.A.Jensen. 1965 Physical properties of seeds, 1965, pp.30-32 [10]. Kaleem, F.H.,Z.E.Ismail and G.R.,Abd-Hakim. grain straw mixture and characteristics, in Factors affecting cleaning efficiency,vol.10. England, Agric, 1993, pp.369-382

[11]. Mohsenin, N.N. Physical properties of plant and animal materials. NewYork:Gordon and Brech Sc.Pub, 1970

[12]. Zaalouk A.K. and Ghnem T.H. some physical and mechanical properties of cowpea seeds. England: 2003, pp.363-379

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