FABRICATION AND MANUFACTURE OF A LITTER REMOVAL MACHINE FOR POULTRY FARMS

Abstract

A litter removal machine was fabricated and constructed for exciting, removing and scraping the litter (bed) of the poultry breeding farms. The evaluation of machine is carried out through the terms of five litter moisture content(25.43, 28.15, 31.30, 35.58, and 38.82 % ), five machine forward speeds (0.57, 0.87, 1.13, 1.42, and 1.73 km/h) ,number of knives groups (3 and 4 groups), and number of knives per each group (3 and 4 knives ) .The machine productivity, removal efficiency, power, energy, and criterion cost were investigated to evaluate the machine performance. The proper kinematics parameter ( ratio of knife peripheral velocity to machine forward speed) is experimentally estimated to maximize removal efficiency and minimized both energy and cost. The results concluded the following; 1. The maximum of removal efficiency, the minimum of energy requirement and criterion cost were achieved at litter moisture content of 31.30 %, four groups of knives, four knives per each group on the unit 2. The kinematic parameter of 1.6 ( 0.5 m/s knife velocity and 1.13 km/h machine forward speed) is recommended to be adjusted for operating the manufacture litter removal machine with three knives per each group and four groups of knives or kinematic parameter of 1.27 (0.5 m/s knife velocity and 1.42 km/h machine forward speed) for machine with four knives per each group and four groups of knives