Development of a Human Powered Pedal Washing MACHINE

Human powered pedal washing machine has been designed using materials suitable for its application. An existing bicycle was used as the pedal and other parts of the machine such as the drum, the frame was fabricated using galvanized steel. The material selection was put into consideration, such as corrosion because of the machine’s involvement with water. The human powered pedal washing machine was tested with a used dirty Laboratory coat. The pedaling washing was first done for the first 15 minutes, using water and sunlight detergent soap. There was a partial cleaning of the Laboratory coat, though the coat was very dirty. Another round of washing was done after which the first washing water was drained out through the outlet part of the machine. The second washing was excellent because the Laboratory coat was clean. The human powered pedal washing machine performed well with all the designed parts functioning well. This is an eco-friendly machine, maintenance cost free, energy conservation machine and highly sustainable for underdeveloped nations of the world

Exploration of the effect of Zn-MgO-UPP coating on hardness, corrosion resistance and microstructure properties of mild steel

This paper investigated the effect of unripe plantain peel (UPP) nanoparticles reinforced Zn-MgO composite coating on the hardness, anti-corrosion and microstructure properties of mild steel. The anti-corrosion characteristics of the coatings were examined using the potentiodynamic polarization method, employing 3.65 % NaCl solution as the test medium. The hardness of the coatings was studied employing the Brinell hardness technique, while the microstructure characteristics were examined using XRD and SEM/EDS. The results of the study revealed that the as-received mild steel sample exhibited the corrosion rate and hardness value of 8.6272 mm year-1 and 136.8 kgf mm-2, respectively, while the Zn-MgO co­ated mild steel sample exhibited a corrosion rate and hardness value of 3.6362 mm year-1 and 42.5 kgf mm-2, respectively. The optimal performing Zn-MgO-UPP coated mild steel sample (sample coated with 20 g L-1 of MgO and 6 g L-1 of UPP) exhibited a corrosion rate and hardness value of 0.8317 mm year-1 and 245.8 kgf mm-2, respectively. The corrosion rate and hardness value of the Zn-20MgO-6UPP coated mild steel sample indicated that the UPP nanoparticles further improved the passivating and strengthening ability of Zn-MgO coating. Moreover, the XRD profile of the coatings possessed high intensities, which indi­cat­ed that the coatings exhibit microstructural and chemical homogeneity, high stability and good texture. It was observed on the SEM micrographs that the Zn-MgO-UPP coating exhi­bited a more refined microstructure compared to the Zn-MgO coating, indicating the grain refining tendency of the UPP nanoparticles. The EDS further indicated the presence of essential and dispersion strengthening elements in the coatings

Development of a Human Powered Pedal Washing MACHINE

Human powered pedal washing machine has been designed using materials suitable for its application. An existing bicycle was used as the pedal and other parts of the machine such as the drum, the frame was fabricated using galvanized steel. The material selection was put into consideration, such as corrosion because of the machine’s involvement with water. The human powered pedal washing machine was tested with a used dirty Laboratory coat. The pedaling washing was first done for the first 15 minutes, using water and sunlight detergent soap. There was a partial cleaning of the Laboratory coat, though the coat was very dirty. Another round of washing was done after which the first washing water was drained out through the outlet part of the machine. The second washing was excellent because the Laboratory coat was clean. The human powered pedal washing machine performed well with all the designed parts functioning well. This is an eco-friendly machine, maintenance cost free, energy conservation machine and highly sustainable for underdeveloped nations of the world

An Android Based Mobile Robot for Monitoring and Surveillance

(Application Programming Interfaces) that is provided for the operating system. However, the building cost for the robot with a smartphone is greatly reduced. The robot can be remotely controlled using the wifi module and a microcontroller, smart phone interface embedded on the robot. The camera on the robot is used to capture and record real time video from the robot. The robot can be controlled based on visual feedback from the same smartphone. The four wheeled dc motors help to navigate the robot and ultrasonic sensor to avoid obstacles. The camera is attached to the wifi robot link which enables it to capture the environment or any object of concern. Experimental results with varied positions of obstacle show the flexibility of the robot to avoid it and have shown a decent performance and it is getting a communication range of nearly 50m, which is good enough for many surveillance applications

Effect of Pre-Shelling Treatment on Physical and Mechanical Properties of Cashew Nut

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of roasting in hot oil on physical and mechanical properties of large (26-35mm), medium (23-25mm) and small (18-22mm) cashew nuts at moisture content of 7.00% w.b. The physical properties considered were length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, true density, bulk density, porosity, mass, and coefficient of friction. The mechanical properties considered were, rupture force, deformation at rupture point, energy used for rupture and young modulus determined from compression test carried out in three major direction of loadings. It was observed that all the dimensional characteristics, mass and densities of cashew nuts before roasting were significantly different (P <0.05) from after roasting. The pre-treatment has significant effect on coefficient of friction of cashew nut which has higher values on mild-steel and wood than other materials. The compression test results showed that the rupture force decreases with decrease in nut size for the three loading directions, however the transverse loading requires higher force than longitudinal and lateral loading for the three nut sizes. For large and medium size nuts, the highest rupture energy was needed in transverse loading direction, followed by lateral loading direction. The compression along the longitudinal direction has the least deformation for the three nut sizes. For the three nut sizes, the highest Young Modulus was exhibited in longitudinal loading direction followed by transverse loading direction

Development of Cashew nut Shelling Machine

Cashew nut shelling machine was designed using impact method to improve shelling efficiency and whole kernel recovery for nuts roasted in hot oil. This was based on the principle of the optimum kinetic energy that could break the cashew nut shell. Deformation energy used was 4.8763 Joules, angular velocity of the impeller calculated from the energy was 26.43 rad/s which was equal to 252 rpm and minimum power required was calculated to be 257.7 Watts. The prototype of cashew nut sheller was constructed and evaluated for its shelling efficiency and whole kernel recovery using three levels of moisture content (7.00%w.b., 8.46%w.b. and 9.83% w.b.), three levels of impeller speeds and three nut sizes (large, medium and small). The results showed that moisture content has significant effect (at P < 0.05) on the shelling efficiency and whole kernel recovery of the nut for the three nut sizes while the impeller speed showed no significant effect. The optimal performance of the machine on large nuts for whole kernel recovery and shelling efficiency were 59.65% and 82.0% respectively at 1759 rpm and 7.00% w.b. For medium nut, they were 53.2% and 92.2% respectively at 1538rpm and 9.83% w.b. For small nut, they were 45.1% and 79.7% respectively at 1704 rpm and 7.00% w.b. Impact shelling methods works well with large cashew nuts as these exhibit higher whole kernel recovery than medium and small nuts

Design and Performance Evaluation of a Solar Dryer

One of the ways to combat food insecurity as world population rises is the reduction of food losses. Drying is one of the oldest methods of food preservation and hence reduces food losses. Solar drying uses energy from the sun and an absorber material to carry out drying of produce. In this project, a solar dryer was designed, constructed and its performance was evaluated. The dryer has overall dimensions of 1000mm by 410mm by 700mm. The inner part of the dryer compartment was lagged with aluminum foil to act as an insulator. The solar collector made of galvanized sheet and the glass on top of it have an area of 800mm by 380mm. Fresh scotch bonnet pepper was used as the produce of choice. The pepper was dried in 2 experiments for 3 weeks each. 200g of pepper was used and weighed to measure weight loss periodically. Temperature and humidity of the drying chamber and the surrounding were measured with data loggers throughout the periods of the experiments. The results showed that the ambient temperature during the experiments was higher than the temperature of the drying chamber in the early hours of the morning between 4am and 10am. During every other period, the temperature in the drying chambers was higher than the ambient temperature. An average moisture content of 81.3% w.b. was removed from the pepper during the experiments. The average efficiency of the dryer was 28.4%

WITHDRAWN: Dataset on performance of solar dryer for scotch bonnet pepper drying

The use of solar drying systems to preserve agricultural products has been proven to be cheap, reliable, and environmentally friendly. Solar dryers offer advantages of shorter periods of drying, reduced loss of raw materials and larger scale of production. This paper presents method followed in evaluating the performance of three different solar dryers with different materials used for solar collectors in order to determine the best among the three. The evaluation was performed twice, and each evaluation was done for three weeks. The parameters recorded in these experiments are drying chamber temperature and humidity, solar collector temperature, ambient temperature and humidity and the weight loss of the pepper. It was observed that the temperature of all drying chambers was higher than ambient temperature during most hours of the day. While three different metals were used as solar collectors in dryers and attained significant different temperature through radiation from the sun, the energy transmitted through natural convection to the drying chambers of the dryers was not significantly different (at p ≤ 0.05) from one dryer to the other. The efficiency of the dryers was an average of 29.7%, 29.1% and 30.3% for stainless steel, mild steel and galvanized steel solar collectors respectively

Dataset on physical properties of raw and roasted cashew nuts

Cashew nut is one of the topmost edible crops in the world. However, one of the challenges of this crop is processing. Designing an equipment for the processing of cashew nut requires the knowledge of its physical properties data. The dataset in this article contained the physical properties of raw and roasted cashew nuts. The physical properties include length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter, spheric- ity, true density, bulk density, porosity and mass of cashew nut. Two experiments were performed. In one experiment, raw cashew nut was roasted in groundnut oil. In the sec- ond experiment, raw cashew nut was roasted in palm-kernel oil. The physical properties of the nuts were measured be- fore and after roasting in hot oil. The data were subjected to a paired sample t-test analysis to determine the level of sig- nificant difference. The data of the cashew nut graded with machine and sorted with hand manually were compared. The data provided in this article will be useful in designing vari- ous types of equipment for grading, separating and cleaning cashew nut. It will also be useful in the design of storage structures and processing machines