Design of a Multi-Purpose Crushing Machine for Processing of Food Grains in Nigeria

Crushing of farm produce for easy storage and consumption is still a problem in most rural areas in Nigeria. Large tons of food crops are lost annually in Nigeria as a result of unavailability of storage facilities. This necessitated the design of a multi-purpose crusher to save crushing energy with minimal grain losses, being the primary aim of this study. The major components of the designed crushing machine consists of a hopper, crushing chamber, shaft, hammers, screen, bearings, discharge outlet and a 2HP electric motor. A number of tests were carried out with the designed crusher using 4.8kg of dry maize and crushing efficiency of 85%, crushing loss of 0.15% and crushing capacity of 65kg/hr. were achieved as optimum performances. From the test results, it was observed that the final crusher design had a higher capacity and efficiency, and this produced finer end products compared to existing ones.