DEVELOPMENT OF A CASSAVA MASH SIEVING MACHINE FOR GARI PROCESSING OPERATIONS

Limited or poor food separation techniques into fine particles for further processing cause post-harvest losses of food crops and initiates the problem of food and nutritional insecurity in Nigeria. In order to solve this problem, food crops need to be processed into a lasting and nutritious consumable form through the use of mechanization. Different materials in powder form or solid form are separated by using two-level screening machines. This machine can be used in different industries like mining, chemical, food and in metallurgical industries to separate components into their respective sizes. In this research, an easily operated and user friendly sieving machine was developed to sieve cassava mash flour in a process plant.  The cassava mash sieving machine consists of two screens of sizes 1.25 mm and 1 mm respectively placed to separate the cassava mash into sieve size. The components part of the machine were designed and a detailed material selection analysis was done. The machine runs on a single phase 1.01 kW electric motor at a speed of 1080 RPM. The overall efficiency of the machine was obtained as 87%.

Keywords:  mesh size, sieving machine, cassava mash, design analysis, process plant.