Development of an Eri Cocoon Cutting and Separating Machine

doi: 10.14456/mijet.2020.13

Abstract

The fibers of eri silk are light, fluffy, sweat-absorbing, and have a unique characteristic. The process of producing eri fiber consists of cutting the cocoon to remove the pupa from the cocoon, degumming and carding. In general, to separate the pupa from the cocoon, farmers use scissors to cut the cocoon by cutting one end of the cocoon. From surveying, it found that the average cutting rate is only 1.5 kilograms per hour per person. Other than that, there is a shortage of labor. For these reasons, agriculture is unable to produce enough eri silk to meet market demand. The purpose of this research was to develop the eri cocoon cutting and separating machine to cut cocoons and to separate the pupa from the cut eri cocoon. The size of the eri cocoon cutting machine is 0.85 meters in width, 1.50 meters in length and 0.80 meters in height. It consists of three conveyor belts that are made into a groove for placing cocoons by hand. The cutter set uses a blade that can adjust the degree of cutting. The separation of the pupa from the cocoon uses vibrations driven by a slider-crank mechanism. From the experiment results to find the most suitable conditions of the machine, it was found that if the blade was tilted at an angle of 50 degrees to the horizontal level and the conveyor speed was set at 2.2 meters per minute, the machine gave the best results. When the speed of the pupa separator is 250 rpm, the cutting machine gave the average cutting rate of 6.424 kilograms per hour and the percentage of pupa separated from the cocoon was 100 significantly. From this operating result, it can be concluded that an eri cocoon cutting and pupa separating machine developed from this research can increase the cutting and separating rate of eri cocoon and tend to be used in the group of eri silk farmers.