Construction and Testing of Belt Conveyor System for Auchi Polytechnic Demonstration Farm

Materials handling is a very important aspect of post-harvest operation, the socio-economic value and shelf life of crops especially perishables depends largely on how they are conveyed from one place to another, a conveyor is a mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another. Many kinds of conveying systems are available, and are used according to the various needs of different industries. The aim of this paper is to construct a belt conveyor machine for Auchi Polytechnic demonstration farm.  This paper contains the design calculations and considerations of belt conveyor system, in terms of size, length, capacity and speed, roller diameter, power and tension, idler spacing, type of drive unit, diameter, location and arrangement of pulley, angle and axis of rotation, control mode, intended application. The completed work will help to reduce human effort and at the same time increase the productivity and accuracy levels that cannot be achieved with manual operations. Keywords: Materials handling, Post-harvest operations, Belt Conveyor, Frame, Material handling equipment, DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/11-18-03 Publication date:September 30th 202

Experimental Investigation on Effect of Head and Bucket Splitter Angle on the Power Output of A Pelton Turbine

This paper investigates through experiment, the effect of head and bucket splitter angle on the power output of a pelton turbine (water turbine), to improve the power generation by the use of efficient Hydro-electric power generation systems. Experiments were conducted on pelton turbine head conditions, high head and low flow with increased pressure delivered more energy on the bucket splitter which then generates a force in driving the wheel compared to the result obtained from low head and high flow operating conditions. The power output was maximum at 23o splitter angle followed by 21o, 15o, 10o and 3o using varied turbine speed (1700, 1400, 1200 and 1000rpm). The force generated by the bucket due to the splitter was increased as the turbine speed was increasing. The force generated by the bucket was increased (0 to 0.38N) due to the energy delivered to the wheel by the head, the turbine output increases from (0 to 7.47kW) which influences the output. This increase in the power output was as a result of their head conditions and the bucket splitter angle

Fabrication and Testing of a Manual Charcoal-Fired Groundnut Fryer

Groundnut is an agricultural product that is of great value to both man and animals. It serves as raw material for industries. Frying is the process of generating characteristic aroma, flavour and colour required by consumers for acceptance of such fried food. The wide range usage of groundnut and its products has led to increase in its demand. However, the local methods of roasting Groundnut seeds after it has been shelled has some associated problems and difficulties which make it ineffective, laborious and time consuming. A manually operated Groundnut seed roaster was constructed with the aim of improving on the traditional methods commonly used in the Nigeria. The machine shows the roasting efficiency (Er) to be in the realm of 98.0% with percentages of seed damaged (loss) in the range of 2.00-20.0%.   The average and optimum time for roasting was estimated to be in the range of 4 minutes. Keywords: Groundnut, charcoal, groundnut fryer, mechanization, heat , manual DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/9-4-0

Development of a fatigue strength testing machine

A profound engineering design and modeling of fatigue strength machine for testing the failure which occurs when a metallic material is subjected to cyclic stresses is presented. The main goal is developing a locally made fatigue strength machine that can be used in material science laboratory. A major direction in this development of the machine is the ability to thread on the path of technology transfer and dominance by concentrating on the building of indigenous capacity. In carrying out the machine development, engineering design formulae were applied and Computer Aided Design modeling was developed. The developed fatigue strength testing machine had a designed machine capacity of 18875Nmm that sustained a motor power of 5.93kw.The machine shaft diameter determined to be 9.88mm developed an equivalent torque and bending moment of 45799.8Nmm and 40890Nmm respectively. The machine designed critical speed of 23.52rad/s had belt tensions on the tight and slack sides to be 139.02N and 44.65N respectively. The fabricated machine has the ability to record low and high fatigue cycles