ABSTRACT

Maize is the most important cereal crop and one major pillar of the Zimbabwean economy. The
products of the post-harvest process that is maize shelling prolong the shelf life of these products
and also increases the net profit farmers make from such products. The project aims to
understand the need of farmers and design an appropriate maize shelling machine that could help
them in the post-harvest process. Maize shelling is the removal of kernels from the maize cob.
The objectives of the project is to design a maize sheller of simple design and made from locally
available materials thereby cutting the cost short , ease of maintenance and reduces damage of
the kernels. Several methods were undertaken which includes collection of farmers’ opinion,
selection of appropriate materials and utilization of the theory of failures. The comparisons
between the human performance index and machine index was carefully studied. This enabled
the design of the maize sheller combined with a surfer or grain separator which enables grading
of different sizes of grains before going with it to the target market. The clearance between the
concave casing and shelling shaft was clearly calculated to the optimum to reduce crushing of
maize which reduces the shelf life and its value on market