Design, fabrication and performance evaluation of a solar powered cassava grater

This study evaluated some performance indicators of a solar powered cassava grating machine. The designing and fabrication of a prototype solar cassava grating machine was carried out using components that included food grade metal sheet metal bar, wooden roller/ grater encasing, pulley, belt, bolts, nuts. The fabricated grater was then connected via a pulley, roller, belt connection to a 1 horsepower rated Ac motor connected to a solar powering system. The solar powering system comprised of components such as 4units of solar panels (235wats), 1unit of charge controller (50 amp), 1unit of inverter (3.5Kva), and 2units of 200Amh rated batteries in series connection. Also, a mass of cassava weighing 100kg was grated in batches using the solar powered cassava grater and the grating time was determined to be 14.90mins (0.25hr). The value was significantly lower than that obtained from grating the same quantity of cassava roots on the combustion engine powered cassava grater (conventional grater) of similar specification which recorded a grating time of 17.60mins. (0.27hr). Values, obtained for some performance indicators, showed a grating efficiency and rate of 96.16% and 0.0025hr/kg respectively. Also, the throughput capacity was determined to be 400.00kg/hr. while power consideration yielded 0.0019kwh/kg for each kg of cassava roots grated. The result showed an overall improvement in all performance indices evaluated which is indicative of improvement in the efficiency.本研究针对太阳能木薯擦碎机（solar powered cassava grating machine）的多项性能指标展开评估。研究采用食品级金属薄板、木质滚筒/擦碎腔、滑轮、皮带、螺栓、螺母等组件，完成了该原型机的设计与试制。所试制的擦碎机通过滑轮、滚筒与皮带连接至额定功率1马力的交流电机（AC motor），该电机接入太阳能供电系统。该太阳能供电系统包含以下组件：4块235瓦太阳能面板、1台50安充放电控制器（charge controller）、1台3.5千伏安逆变器（inverter），以及2块串联连接的200安时蓄电池。随后，研究人员使用该太阳能木薯擦碎机分批处理总质量为100千克的木薯原料，测得擦碎耗时为14.90分钟（0.25小时）。该时长显著低于同规格内燃机驱动木薯擦碎机（conventional grater，即传统擦碎机）的处理时长——后者耗时为17.60分钟（0.27小时）。多项性能指标的测试结果显示，其擦碎效率与擦碎速率分别为96.16%与0.0025小时/千克。此外，该设备的处理通量（throughput capacity）可达400.00千克/小时，而单位功耗指标为每千克木薯原料0.0019千瓦时。研究结果表明，本次评估的全部性能指标均实现整体优化，印证了该设备效率的显著提升。