MANUFACTURE AND EVALUATION OF A SIMPLE PROTOTYPE OF PEANUT SHELLER

A power-operated peanut sheller was manufactured and the performance was evaluated under different operational conditions. The experiments were conducted at drum rotary speeds of 150, 200, 250 and 300 rpm (2.0, 2.67, 3.33 and 4 m/s.), feeding rates of 170, 210 and 250 kg/h and air speeds of 4.9, 6.8 and 8.8 m/s. The performance was evaluated in terms of output seed damage, shelling losses, undamaged seeds, un-shelling pods, shelling efficiency and machine productivity as well as cleaning ratio. The lowest seeds damaged and shelling losses of 2.45 and 1.32% while the highest undamaged seeds and shelling efficiency of 97.55 and 96.23% were obtained at drum speed of 150 rpm (2.0 m/s) and feeding rate of 170 kg/h. The highest machine productivity of 250 kg/h was obtained at drum speed of 300 rpm (4m/s.) and feeding rate of 250 kg/h. The highest cleaning ratio 98 % was obtained at drum rotary speed of 150 rpm and air speed of 8.8 m/s. But the lowest cleaning ratio of 94.8% was obtained at drum rotary speed of 300 rpm and air speed of 4.9 m/s.