Construction and Evaluation of a Vertical Motorized Feed Mixer

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

In order to reduce the overall cost of poultry production by small scale farmers, a motorized feed mixer was modified, fabricated and evaluated. The mixer consists of an outer drum, an inner mixing chamber and an auger. All these components were vertically oriented for mixing operation. There was a hopper located at the base of the mixer for loading the materials and a chute for the discharging of mixed products. It was modified to work through a central rotating auger fixed on a shaft that carries a pulley of diameter 185 mm. The rotational motion was transmitted from a motor through a V-belt to the pulley shaft. A 5-0 hp electric motor with 1440 rpm was used to drive the machine. Mixing was achieved as the auger conveyed the feed materials from the bottom to the top, in a continuous rotational motion. The mixer was evaluated using a whole corn kernel (WCK) at 15.35 % (d.b) and small pieces of coloured paper (CP) of 5x5 mm² as tracers in ground maize as base materials. The auger pitch was reduced from 90.0 mm to 85.0 mm to increase the number of pitches from 10 to 12. This modification increased the throughput capacity of the mixer from 50.0 kg to 70.0 kg. The mixed material was delivered through the delivery chute after mixing. Mixing time values evaluated were 2.0, 4.0, 6.0, 8.0 and 10.0 mins. The test results showed that maximum mixing occurred at 6.0 mins for coloured paper and 8.0 mins for whole kernel corn.