1.1 Introduction
Maize is the most important cereal grain in the world, after wheat and rice, providing nutrients for humans and animals and serving as a basic raw material for the production of starch, oil and protein, alcoholic beverages, food sweeteners and, more recently, fuel. It is because of the important place of maize that it’s handling, processing and preservation within the optimum conditions must be analyzed. Maize is considered to be one of the most important staple crops in the world. People in some parts of the world actually consider Maize as their survival food.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Today, Maize shellers come in wide variety of sizes and types. From the simplest hand-held device to the more complex bigger self-feeding machines powered by steam, Maize kernel separation has been successful since then. Maize is the most important cereal grain in the world, after wheat and rice, providing nutrients for humans and animals and serving as a basic raw material for the production of starch, oil and protein, alcoholic beverages, food sweeteners and, more recently, fuel. It is because of the important place of maize that it’s handling, processing and preservation within the optimum conditions must be analyzed. The problem of poverty, hunger and malnutrition would be alleviated if there is adequate production of Maize, Maize also called maize plays an important dietary role in most parts of Africa, It is grown virtually everywhere, in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions where rain and irrigation is adequate (Messiaen, 1992), Tindall, 1983). The major steps involved in the processing of Maize are harvesting, drying, de-husking, shelling, storing, and milling. All these processes are costly and for the rural farmers to maximize profits on their produce, appropriate technology that suites their needs must be used. Maize processing not only prolongs its useful life but also increases the net profit farmers (users) make from mechanization technologies. It is in this line that one of the most important processing operations done to bring out the quality of Maize is shelling. It is basically the removal of the Maize kernels from the cob. This separation, done by hand or machine, is obtained by shelling through friction or by shaking the products; the difficulty of the process depends on the varieties grown, and on the moisture content as well as the degree of maturity of grain.
Maize is considered to be one of the most important staple crops in the world. People in some parts of the world actually consider Maize as their survival food. According to the D-Lab Maize Sheller writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Accessed on Oct 4th 2013), Maize accounts for 43% of the Latin American diet. Because of the high need of Maize grains, it leads to the invention of a wonderful tool called the Maize sheller which helps in shelling the kernels from the cob as well as makes shelling faster and easier. It. The first ever Maize sheller was invented by Lester E. Denison at Sayville Middlesex country, connecticus.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Design and Fabrication of Maize Shelling Machine.
1.3 Statement of Problems
The factor among others has made the decortications of Maize an important process that must be developed to enhance value addition and also remove human efforts and also remove human efforts and associated difficulties when using traditional method of shelling such as losses labour intensity, time consuming and low output capacity.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to Design and Fabricate of Maize Shelling Machine. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To design a maize shelling machine that will operate with minimum noise.
- To construct a maize shelling machine that can effectively separate the corn from the cob.
- To design and construct a Maize sheller which is easy to operate with high degree of efficiency.
- To design and construct a Maize sheller that is economic and has little or no complication in maintenance
- To design and construct a Maize sheller with high percentage of local technology and cost effective manual stress reduction.
1.5 Significance of Study
The importance attached to this design is the facilitation and the production of voluminous Maize shelling without much time and without encountering much breakage of the grains of the Maize in shortest possible time. The specification was obtained considering the items or component used and the hopper and barrel dimensions put into consideration as well.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of the Study
A research-work for design and fabricate of a Maize Sheller consisting of feed hopper, shelling unit, separating unit and power system. The performance of the machine was evaluated in terms of throughput capacity, shelling efficiency, material efficiency and mechanical damage. Regression models that could be used to express the relationship existing between the Sheller performance indices, pod moisture content and feed rate were establish. This paper describes about the design of various components of Maize Sheller machine. Hence in this design of various parts are necessary, and design of various parts due to which the design quality of those parts will be improved. Overall, this project involves processes like design, fabrication and assembling of different components etc.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
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