Performance evaluation of coconut dehusking machine

Dehusking coconut manually is a laborious and back-aching task. Coconut dehusking machine was developed to reduce these problems. This machine consists of a 4.1 kW (5.5 hp) petrol engine that generates power to operate a hydraulic system, which controls the movement of the double spike rollers by moving forward, reverse or stop using an operation lever. A hydraulic motor connects to the double spiked rollers using a chain and sprockets. Coconuts are fed between the spiked rollers to start-off the dehusking process. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of machine settings on dehusking time and the damages of coconuts. The machine setting variables were different roller spike gaps, different coconut orientation and different rotational speeds. Three coconut varieties were used, namely Malayan Tall, MAWA and MATAG. The MAWA variety produced the fastest dehusking time of 5.39 s using the smallest spiked roller gap of 2.5 cm. There was a statistical evidence that rotational speed had an effect on MAWA dehusking time. Significant differences were obtained in dehusking time across coconut orientation for Malayan Tall. All varieties sustained no damages while dehusking, except for MAWA when the largest spiked roller gap of 5.1 cm was used