Performance evaluation of an electric corn shelling machine for small scale indigenous industries in Nigeria

Abstract

The time and energy expended in shelling corn manually have necessitated the detailed design and construction of a modern electric corn shelling machine. The major problems associated with the manual corn shelling machine were the high level of fatigue of the operator and low shelling capacity, leading to reduced productivity. These problems motivated the construction of a sheller with a simple design, that employs a swift mechanism and pulley drive, is simple to use and maintain and results in improved efficiency. Results obtained show that the electric corn shelling machine developed in this study is cost effective and has a shelling efficiency of 91.4%, whereas the manual corn sheller was shown to have an efficiency of 45% or less. Therefore, if the electric corn shelling machine were used, especially in rural settings, it could optimize the time and energy currently taken to shell corn manually on a large scale.