Manufacturing and Performance Evaluation of a Local Machine for Grinding Maize Grains

Abstract

The experiments were carried out to develop and construct a local grinding machine for grinding yellow maize grains for producing animal fodder. The performance of the developed machine was studied under the following parameters: Four different drum speeds of (1400, 1600, 1900 and 2300rpm) or (26, 30, 36 and 43m/s) , three screen hole diameters of (3.5, 5, and 8.5mm) and three different patch sizes of (5, 10, and 15kg). The performance of the manufactured machine was evaluated taking into consideration the following indicators: machine productivity, particle size distribution (fineness degree, medium degree, coarse degree), required power, specific energy and operational cost. The experimental results reveal that the highest value of machine productivity was 931kg/h, while the lowest values of both specific energy and operational cost were 3.1kW.h/Mg, and 21.8L.E./Mg, respectively. The optimum operating parameters of the developed grinding machine were obtained at 1900 rpm (36m/s) drum speed by using 8.5mm screen diameter with patch size of about 15kg.