Design And Fabrication Of A Groundnut Oil Expelling Machine

摘要

A misconception exist between groundnut oil and other vegetable oil used in Nigeria because ofthe inefficient processes of producing groundnut oil in commercial quantity. This work, design and fabricationof an automated groundnut oil extractor was aimed to produce pure groundnut oil which would be better thanthe common vegetable oil (refined,blenched and deodorized palm oil)due to its natural process of extraction thismachine this machine designed to the power a by 075kw electric motor with 1400 rpm and 50Hz singlephase.The desired crushing effect at low power input would be achieved by the incorporation of a gearreduction system of 1:10. The procedures employed include the design stage, construction and testing. Themachine components are: the electric motor, expellant unit, drains collector, belt, driving and driven pulleys,and the hopper. The expelling unit consists of a screw expellant shaft with expellant barrel. The maximumcrushing stress of the groundnut was determined experimentally as 23.1KNm2.A heater of 1500W was used topreheat the groundnut before crushing. The groundnut was heated for 15mins which resulted to the productionof 0.23kg quantity of oilwith improved quality. When heated for 10mins the quantity produced was 0.019kgwhich contained some impurities. The result showed that at 15mins preheating of the groundnut the quantityand quality of oil produced were better than the one produced when heated for 10mins. Therefore, the rate of oilextraction was effective and efficient at 15mins heating time. At a regulated heater temperature of 100oC thequality of the oil and groundnut cake was pleasant and edible. Based on the efficiency and the quality of the oilproduced, this machine was recommended suitable for the production of groundnut oil for commercial use.