DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF GREEN -VEGETABLES SLICING MACHINE

O. O. Alabi; O. A. Adeaga; G. O. Ogunsiji; S. A. Dada

O. O. Alabi Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ibadan
O. A. Adeaga Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, First Technical University Ibadan, Nigeria
G. O. Ogunsiji Department of Mechanical Engineering, Teesside University Middleborough, UK
S. A. Dada Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kwara State Polytechnic Ilorin, Nigeria

Keywords: Food, Slicing Machine, Manual Operation, Green Vegetables

Abstract

Requirements of food processing units are sensitive and must be in conformity with hygiene and time requirement. Continuous work on the development of machines that are involved in the processing of edibles should be carried out. Traditionally, green-vegetables are plucked raw which often require time and also compromise hygiene. However, the several works done on green-vegetable slicing equipment have added improvement to ways by processing and or consumption. This article attempted the development of green-vegetable slicing machine and also evaluated the performance of same. Existing vegetable slicing machines were studied through literature and process design for development was carried out. Cutting capacity of 1.5 kg and 25 g of uniform slicing were used to evaluate the performance of the developed green-vegetable slicing machine. The shortcomings in the existing slicing machines reduced while reducing loss of sliced and also with uniform slices. Existing vegetable machines has experienced loss and associated time. The developed machine has a significantly improved efficiency to 96%.