Design and Performance Evaluation of Grain Feed Grinding Machine

Abstract

The importance of milling grains into fine flours has a full advantage for homogeneity and size reduction for feed suitability. The grinding technology was made with locally available and affordable materials. Milling technology is promised technology mainly proposed for fish feed and can be used for any animals feed production that has been made with the factors considered in design standard and material properties. The hammer mill blades are replaceable or can regrind easily if they were worn out. This machine was designed and constructed for crushing locally available grains of maize, sorghum, wheat, barley, and other gains mainly for fish. And the parameters have been analyzed using statistix 8.0 software tool with different sieve hole-sizes (1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm) with corresponding independent variables; mass before and after grinding, grinding time, actual capacity, and crushing efficiency. The coefficient of variation of maize, wheat, and sorghum in respective sieve sizes for the grinding time and crushing efficiency was within the range of acceptable value of less than 7%. The power required for the milling has been determined 3000 W and the rotor speed was stepped up to 1800 rpm. The maximum capacity and crushing efficiency of this mill machine for different grains range from 65-78 kg h-1 and 90-95% respectively.