Design and Development of Size Segregation Sieve Machine with Centrifugal Action

Abstract

This study aims to design and develop a size segregation sieve machine that utilizes centrifugal action to separate impurities from short Oil Palm Frond (OPF) fibers. OPF fibers can manufacture into various products such as erosion control mat and medium density fibreboard as an agricultural waste management program for achieving environmental sustainability. In this aspect, the role of the fiber sieving machine would be significant to support the industry in the production of OPF fibers. However, a thorough literature survey reviewed that limited publications are available in this area; most work done is published in the form of patents. In addition, most fiber sieving machines available in the market utilize manual labour work in the separation phase, where they are highly inefficient. Therefore, this study is designed to fill these gaps. The design of this study adopts the mechanism of various size segregation concepts available and includes centrifugal action in the separation process to increase efficiency. Eventually, a prototype was fabricated for laboratory testing. Several vital parameters are highlighted, which includes mesh surface inclination, sieving duration, a rotation speed of screen and maximum capacity that significantly affects the sieving efficiency. Findings from this study show that sieving duration is less significant to the developed design as higher rotation speed will tend to improve the passing percentage of the fibers. Testing results also revealed the potential application of such a machine in other particle separation applications such as soil separation. For future study, it is recommended to improve the current design in terms of parts, size simplification and multiple size segregation adaptation for achieving a higher production rate.