Developing Archetypal Machines for a Sequence of Food- Slurry Processing Operations: An Overview

The importance of cereal gruel as a highly nutritious food for infants in many countries in Africa cannot be overstated. Conventional methods of producing these food-slurries prior to their consumption as food cannot meet up with the high demand for these gruels. This current work is targeted at developing various archetypal machines for the improvement of the production of these food slurries. Three prototype machines have been developed and discussed in this paper, namely, the suction sieving machine, the vibration sieving machine and the continuous flow multi-stage milling machine. The results of performance analyses on these archetypal machines are presented and compared to ascertain their efficiencies and their appropriateness for different operations respectively. The results show that the machines have increased the sieving rate of steeped grain and in extension the production of these food-slurries by over 50%. Design considerations for a dualprocessing machine-assembly that combines the sieving and milling processes into a single operation is herein presented as the focus for future works. Conclusively, this work presents a remarkable contribution to research on the improvement of the production of various cereals gruels in Nigeria and many developing nations through the introduction of new processing technologies.Key words: - Archetypal-Design; Performance-analysis; Sieving; Milling;food-slurr

Preliminary Design of an Automated White Board Cleaner

The work presented in this paper is on the preliminary design and fabrication of an automated whiteboard cleaner. The objective here in is to reduce the man-power involved in cleaning white boards after use. Though the use of smart boards is increasing, many institutions in the developed and developing world still make use of white boards. The Autodesk software was used for the CAD drawing and thereafter the design analyses and fabrication were done. The auto-board was designed to be powered by a single phase 0.6 HP electric motor. The chain drive parameters were determined based on estimations of the centre distance between the sprockets, the required cleaning time, number of sweeps, total number of chain links and the expected performance. The cleaning efficiency of the auto-white board cleaner is estimated to be better than the manual operation when the equipment is fully completed.Key words: Automated-white board-cleaner, Design-analyses, Preliminary-fabricatio

The Development of an Analyses-Intensive Software for Improved Cams System Design

The computer-aided software developed in this research work is used in designing cam systems by generating various follower motions and cam profiles. It is highly suited for extensive dynamics, kinematics and geometric design analysis based on some inherent features that are unique. The plate cam with either flat-face or roller followers can be designed. Most of the standard and acceptable cam functions are included such as double harmonic, modified trapezoidal, cycloid, 4-5-6 polynomial and others. Various prime circle radii and follower face widths are calculated for flat-face follower design option for any user selected cam angle, follower profile and cam function. Other parameters such as minimum and maximum values of radii of curvature, pressure angle, are also calculated for roller follower design option. In every design the follower motion and cam profiles are calculated and coordinate files can be exported in Cartesian format and automatically imported into a spreadsheet package thereby using all its features for better analysis of results. All dynamic, kinematics and geometric parameters can be plotted and all data may be printed to the screen, to a printer, or to a file. Keywords: Cams; Design; software; simulations; validation Journal of Science and Technology Vol. 28 (1) 2008 pp. 103-11

Developing of a Computerized Brain Diagnosing System for Case Study Analyses at a University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria

This research presents a conceptual procedure for characterizing theessential nature of the diagnostic reasoning process. This computerization of the medical neurological section of the University College Hospital Ibadan in Nigeria leads to effectiveness and efficiency of the existing medical diagnosing process. The main purpose of this project is to design a computerized brain diagnosing system that would be used in carrying out the daily diagnosing activity in the clinic. The developed computerized system has numerous advantages over manual operation which is very tedious and time consuming. As part of the research method, a set of clinical and ward observations were personally made confirming that the computerized system is prompt, less prone to errors and efficient. This work deals mainly with the analysis of the manual system and the computerization of the newly design system. Moreover, it explains how operations are carried out on records and use of data encryption method so as to ensure confidentiality in the use of the software

Modelling and Forecasting Periodic Electric Load for a Metropolitan City in Nigeria

In this work, three models are used to analyze the electric load capacity of a fast growing urban city and to estimate its future consumption. Ikorodu, the case-study location is a highly populated city whose energy demand is continuously increasing. The ultimate focus of this study is to establish a basis for the comparison of different electric load consumption for the existing populace and to provide estimates for the future planning of the city. In this work, three different models have been used to present more accurate load predictions and to enhance proper comparison of results. Among numerous mathematical and scientific models that are applicable to this kind of task, the compound-growth method, the linear model approach and the cubic model have been chosen to enhance diversity in load analysis. The futuristic scheme to be harnessed will fall within the ranges of values obtained from the three different models used in forecasting. This paper concludes with issues pertaining to economics of load utilization as it affects substantive planning.Key words: Electric-load, Linear trend, Compound-growth, Cubic model, forecastin