Design, Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of a Reciprocating Cocoa Pod Breaking Machine

Abstract

After harvesting ripped cocoa pods during primary processing the next operation is the extraction of the wet seeds from their pods before fermentation. This operation of wet seed extraction is commonly performed manually using cutlass for cutting into two and using of hands for the extraction of the set seeds. This caused drudgery, low extraction rate and atimes incised wounds from cutlass used. Hence an electrically or fueled reciprocating engine powered cocoa pods breaking machine was designed, fabricated and evaluated. It has a crushing chamber of 0.054m3, hammer mass of 15.38 kg, applied force of 150.92 N for breaking pods, rated power of the prime mover (electric motor or fueled engine) is 1.22 kW, diameter of hammer's shaft is 28.0 mm, the angle of hopper is 210 using mild steel of 5 mm gauge with friction coefficient of 0.32, total mass of the machine is 145 kg with attached accessories and its geometric dimension is (1060 x 690 x 460) mm. It's crushing capacity per hour based on size ofpods are 7,600, 5,400 and 3,600 for small, medium and large pods respectively. Its efficiency based on the pod classifications are: small pods 92.5%, medium pods 87% while the large size is 86.25%. The cost of the machine considering: material, machining, bought out goods, non – machining and labour costs amount to five hundred and twenty-four US dollar US $524:00.