Design, Manufacture, and Evaluation of an Oleaster Mill Machine

This study aimed to design, perform static and dynamic analysis, manufacture, and evaluate an oleaster mill machine. It was designed from a crusher, anti-crusher, tray, body, chassis, inlet, and outlet. After the 3D design, static and dynamic analyses were performed to confirm the strength of the crusher. Then, the technical knowledge (drawings) was extracted and used to manufacture the machine through sheet metal and welding (body and its accessories) as well as casting-machining methods (crusher and anti-crusher parts). An electric motor (2.206 kW) was utilized to rotate the crusher. The manufactured machine was evaluated by measuring the amount of pulverization of oleaster fruit (particles smaller than 250 microns) at various moisture content of the fruit (close to 0% or no change in the moisture content of the sample at 70 C, 5%, and 10%), different speeds of the crusher (750, 1000, 1250, 1500 rpm) and different sizes of tray meshes (0.5, 0.75 and 1 mm) in the form of a factorial experiment based on a completely randomized design in three replications. Statistical analysis showed that the maximum amount of pulverization (80.16) was achieved at the highest rotating speed of the crusher, with the size of tray meshes of 0.75 mm, and samples at moisture content close to zero. By a similar setup, the pulverization was calculated at 79.33% and 55.12% at 5% and 10% moisture content of the samples, respectively. For the manufactured machine and samples at 5% moisture content, which is recommended, the total capacity was calculated at 30 kg/h.