ABSTRACT

Generally coconuts are dehusked manually using either a machete or a spike.

These methods require skilled labour and are tiring to use. Attempts made so far in
the development of dehusking tools have been only partially successful and are not
effective in replacing manual methods. The reasons quoted for the failure of these
tools include unsatisfactory and incomplete dehusking, breakage of the coconut
shell while dehusking, spoilage of useful coir, greater effort needed than manual
methods, etc.
India is the 2
nd
largest producer of coconut in the world. Most of the farmers
are not aware of the importance of coconut processing industry in India. Some
projects were designed in recent times but the required target was not achieved.The
manual de-husking involves high risk and consumes more time. To overcome this,
there is a need to automate the de-husking process. Over decades many steps were
taken to automate the de-husking process but all were in vain due to lack of
knowledge and interest, fear for coconut shell breakage during the process, etc.
Now it is the time to look into the great scope for the future in the field of
agriculture. This machine will be great boon to the farmers and coconut vendors
who always depend on labours for peeling the coconut.



















CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Agriculture is the potential area that has to be automated which can be
applied for activities like irrigation, harvesting, ploughing, weeding, etc. Our
project aims at automating the process of removing the outer shell of the coconut
by using some pure mechanical oriented thoughts. This machine is specifically
designed to remove the husks from the coconut fruit using rotating blades to
penetrate and effectively engage the husk portion of the coconut fruit. The
interaction of the rollers in combination with the gripping action of the spike serves
to tear away the husk from the nut leaving the nut intact.

The process remains safe and only one operator is required to operate this
machine and there is no breakage of coconut. This coconut dehusking machine is
more energy efficient compared to other machines. This serves an added advantage
to our machine. The fibre production (both white and brown) in the country is
estimated at 3.75 lakh tonne.Lack of an effective husk collection mechanism and
consequent inadequate raw material availability is the main bane of the coir
industry affecting its development. Meanwhile, the husk available with the small
holdings, are now wasted in the absence of an organized system for collection of
husk and its mobilization for being supplied to the industry.There is a shortage of
fibre as the industry is able to use only 35 per cent of the 13,000 million coconut
husks produced in a year.

















CHAPTER 2

OBJECTIVE


The coconut processing industry has a booming scope in the market. The
utilization of byproducts also plays a key role in the coconut processing industry.
While evaluating the study undergone, the coconut dehusking remains unsolved
due to failures. This project is a prototype of the de-husking machine where all the
factors are considered like:


Cost factor

Energy efficiency

Safety factor

Time factor


2.1 ASPECTS TO BE CONSIDERED IN THIS PROJECT:


The aspects that have to be considered while fabricating this project are

1. Size of the coconut,

2. The usefulness of husk after peeling and

3. The use of coconut shell (as fuel)

4. Strength of coconut husk







2.2 REASON FOR UNDERTAKING THIS PROJECT


India being the

largest producer of coconut, lack in technology of

processing industry. Most of the farmers are not aware of the importance of
coconut processing industry in India. Even now in dehusking the coconut the basic
conventional process are being followed. Even though they face many problems in
the field of agriculture, many blame their fate and no one takes action to solve their
problems. Since the byproducts have a very good market in other industries like
food, fuel and coir industry, which now is considered to be the booming field in
agriculture. The outer shell (husk) of the coconut is removed for various purposes
like extraction of oil, coir products, preparation of food items, etc. Until now the
shell from the coconut is removed manually. The manual dehusking involves risk
due to injury and consumes more time to dehusk (peel) the coconut shell and
labour fatigue. This leads to less productivity and more labor cost.To overcome
this, there is a need to automate the dehusking process.While automating the
process the usefulness of the by-products are to be considered.























CHAPTER 3

BY PRODUCTS


Some of the byproducts of coconut are:

The nut

The shell

The coir


3.1 The Nut:

It is used in food processing industry and is most commonly used in home
made foods, sweets, etc. Coconut oil is also extracted from the nut (dried) which is
also used as hair oil and used even in cooking. The waste of coconut after
extraction of oil is used as food for cows.

3.2 The Shell:


In ancient period the shell was used as weapon by people. Even now the
shell is used as a fuel in many small scale industries due to high carbon content. It
is normally used in houses of rural areas as cooking fuel. Now a day the shell is
used in modern paintings and carvings.


3.3 The Coir:


Though the coir industry predominantly works on traditional finished yarns
for ropes, matting and carpets, new avenues have emerged for the use of coir in the
manufacture of panel boards as replacement to timber, side walls, floors and train
seats. The coconut pith is used as soil former and agricultural nutrient. In Tamil
Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, coconut husk was extensively used as fuel
by the brick industry and sugar mills

CHAPTER 4
LITERATURE SURVEY



We studied various methods of dehusking like;

1.The manual traditional process

2.The roller type blade mechanism

3.Imported hydraulic dehusking machine


4.1 The Manual Traditional Method:


The manual dehusking involves risk due to injury and consumes more time
to dehusk (peel) the coconut shell. This leads to less productivity and more labor
cost. In day today life the labour for peeling coconut is 16paise/coconut. Therefore
for 1hour the labour is around Rs. 40/person. At the end of the day the cost for the
labour itself touches 400/labour. Now for peeling of coconut its not just one labour
is enough, we need at least 3 persons for peeling 1000 coconuts. The output is so
poor that only averages of 200 coconuts are peeled off by one labour. Also due to
labour fatigue the output further decreases.


4.2 The Roller Type Blade Mechanism:


The roller type mechanism is that two rollers each having an elongated
configuration are disposed in spaced apart, substantially parallel relation to one
another on the base and in readily accessible relation. A drive means is provided
also in supported relation on the base and in direct driving engagement with the
rollers.
Interconnection of the rollers to the drive means is such that the rollers are
forced to rotate in an opposite direction relative to one another and, in a preferred
embodiment to be described in greater detail here in after, at relatively different
speeds. Collectively, the rollers define two outer exposed surfaces which may be
considered the upper portions of the roller.
In such an orientation, the rollers rotate in a direction towards the center
such that a coconut, placed thereon, will be forced into the spacing between the
rollers. But the operator or the labour has to hold it to the center of the rollers till
the roller catches hold of the coconut. This risks the labour to accident.And it is not
energy efficient.


4.3 The hydraulic dehusking machine:


There are many hydraulically operated coconut dehusking machine available
in the market which are used to remove the outer coconut husk from the coconut
fruit. They are capable of dehusking 350 pieces of coconut fruit per hour with a
single operator.
Basically these hydraulically operated machines require more care and
maintenance. They are reliable to certain extent because they cause breakage
during the operation.
The operation involves skillful labour who has to know the hydraulic
components working and must be properly trained to operate and maintain it.
More over the machine is much more expensive that is
cannot be afforded by normal person. The technology involved in this machine
also complex and inaccessible.

















CHAPTER 5

COMPARISON TABLE
























BASIC WORKING PRINCIPLE:


The power from the 1hp motor is transferred through a v-belt-pulley
arrangement to the shaft on which the blades are arranged. There are two such
shafts which rotate in the opposite direction, each containing four blades on it. The
two shafts are rotated using two gears positioned on each shafts with same number
of teeths. The coconut is placed in between the teeths of the shaft so that when
pressure is applied from the top, the coconut gets engaged in the blades and the
process of dehusking occurs. The expected number of coconuts to be dehusked by
this machine is 900 coconut per hour.


DESIGN OF COMPONENTS.

DESIGN


DEHUSKING FORCE CALCULATION




Dehusking force = 8 Kgf ( tender coconut)

= 10 Kgf(dry coconut)


BEARING:


F=10Kgf

S=1.2(service factor)

Equivalent Load (P) =FS

=101.2 =12Kgf



Dynamic capacity () ()
(

)
, (K=3 for ball bearings.)

Life of bearing(L) = ( )

= 175.2 million revolutions

C ()

= 401.1 Kgf

Bearing selection: Self aligning ball bearing

SKF NO:2206 ,d=30mm, D=62mm, static capacity(

)=560Kgf,

dynamic capacity(C)=1200kgf, maximum permissible speed=13000 rpm.



PULLEY AND V-BELT DESIGN:


D =75mm, N =200rpm

D =id = 3.675= 270mm

equivalent pitch diameter (De) =85.5mm

Belt cross-section symbol is A

Belt speed (s) =(DN)/60 =2.356 m/s

Rated power for belt cross-section A =1.559 KW

Design power =
(rated power service factor)/(lengthFactorangle correction factor)

= (1.5591.11.02)/(0.97)
= 1.803 KW

Number of belts = design power/rated power
= 1.15

1

Centre distance(C) =700mm


Length of belt =
()

( )

=1872mm

Top Width of belt = 13mm

Thickness= 8mm


DIMENSION OF V-GROOVED PULLEY:

Groove cross-section=A

Pitch width=11mm

Minimum depth below pitch line=8.7mm

Edge of pulley to first groove centre (f)=10mm






POWER REQUIREMENT


Power,

= 205.46 W

= 0.27 hp

Hence , 1 hp slow speed motor is selected


SHAFT DESIGN

( )

( )

The diameter of shaft selected is 7 cm.


SLOPE DESIGN


Coefficent of friction for coconut= 0.522

For coconut to slide
=



Selected value of slope = 28.072



MACHINE COMPONENTS

The main components of the machine are as follows:

Machine frame

Drive mechanism

Holding mechanism

Blades

MACHINE FRAME



DRIVE MECHANISM

The drive mechanism plays a vital role since the complete operation is
mechanically oriented.
It consist of:

A motor

Pulley arrangement

Shaft with blades

Bearings

Gears



THE MOTOR:

A single phase AC 1hp slow speed induction motor is used to drive the
machine.
The motors output shaft is connected directly to the pulley arrangement.
The motor bed is rigidly fixed to the frame of the machine. The speed of the motor
is 960 rpm.


PULLEY ARRANGEMENT

This arrangement transmits power from the motor to the rotating shaft. It
consists of two pulleys and a V belt providing a speed reduction of 4.8.

Dimensions:

SHAFT WITH BLADES

Two rotating shafts of diameters 30cm are provided with blades for the
peeling action. Each shaft consists of four blades. These shafts rotate in the
opposite direction with same speed.

Dimensions


BEARINGS

Bearings are provided to support the shafts and also to maintain a smooth
rotation of the shafts. The bearings used in this machine are self aligning ball
bearings and they accommodate any misalignments in the shaft.

Dimensions





GEARS


Gears are used to rotate the two shafts with same speed and in opposite
direction. The gears used in this machine are spur gears.

Dimensions


HOLDING MECHANISM


BLADES


MATERIAL USED:


Mild steel






















COST ESTIMATION



Material cost:rs 2000/-

Bearing cost:rs 1250/-

Motor cost:rs 2000/-

Belt and pulley:rs 2500/-

Gears:rs 1500/-

Manufacturing costs:rs 7500/-

Other costs:rs 1250/-

Total cost estimate:rs 18000/-








RESULT


CONCLUSION