A Cleaning and Grading Machine for Inca Peanut Seeds after Shelling Process

doi: 10.14456/mijet.2018.7

Abstract

Due to the fact that after the shelling process, there might be contamination of nuts and dust, the cleaning and grading of shelled Inca Peanuts seeds need to be done before the next process. Thus, from this study, the researchers would like to build a nut cleaning and grading machine for Inca peanuts, which is composed of 2 parts: a blower and a separator.  The blower, which is used to eliminate the shell, is 45x90x60 cm in size and incorporates a seed scatter pad. The separator consists of a 2 layered sieve with exit channel sizes of 20 and 18 mm, which are used to separate the whole nuts, unshelled pods, broken kernels, and the small contaminants using the channel. According to the study, the appropriate conditions for the process are when the cleaning machine is operated at a camshaft speed of 520 rpm and a velocity of 2.8 m/s, which will result in an average cleaning efficiency of 97.83%, a percentage of seed loss at 11.61%, and an average working capacity of 240.81 kg/hr.