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Design and performance evaluation of a small-scale multi-crop chipper

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 Bello et al., (2017). Development and performance evaluation of a small scale multi-crop
chipper. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Nigeria Institution of
Agricultural Engineers (NIAE), Umudike, 2017.

DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A SMALL-SCALE MULTI-CROP CHIPPER

Bello R. S.1, Onyeanula P. E.2, Nnaamah A.3
1, 2, 3
Department of Agricultural & Bio-Environmental Engineering Technology, Federal College of
Agriculture, Ishiagu, Ebonyi State, Nigeria
Corresponding author: bellraph95@yahoo.com, segemi2002@gmail.com, 08068576763

ABSTRACT domestic exercises (Bello, 2010; Bello and

A portable small-scale multi-crop chipper machine
was developed and constructed to slice different
crops into choice sizes at no risk of injuries to
fingers. The machine was evaluated using three
selected crops; garden egg, freshly harvested
cassava tuber, and plantains (ripe and unripe). The
chipping efficiency, percentage crop damage and
chip characteristics (length, width and thickness)
were equally evaluated. The machine chipped
cassava and unripe plantain more efficiently than
ripped plantain, obviously because of high moisture
content. Performance efficiency of the machine and
chip characteristics adversely by crop moisture
content. There are more well-formed chips with
cassava and unripe plantain than ripped ones. The
determined efficiencies and machine capacities for
chipping different crops were desirable with highest
efficiency recorded in chipping unripe plantain
(89.72%) while the lowest efficiency was recorded in
chipping ripe plantain (48.05%). The highest
machine capacity (53.58%) was recorded while
chipping garden egg.
Keywords: Chipper, energy requirement, cutting
efficiency
1. INTRODUCTION
Chipped and fried plantain, banana, tapioca
(cassava), yam etc. are among few of different types
of chipped food products now very popular (both
locally and globally) as fast-foods among the citizens
and chip snack industries. These home-made foods
are considered rich resources of energy producing
foods prepared and processed into various forms
especially chips. However, these chips-in-snacks
production and some vegetables consumed either as
soup or in porridge (yam pudding) in cooking are
commonly chipped or sliced manually with kitchen
knives and as such become one of the most tedious
93
Adegbulugbe, 2010).
This process poses bottlenecks and often caused
untold dangers of frequent injuries due to knife cut to
fingers during slicing. To overcome such dangers,
the cutting processes are motorized. Typically,
researchers had put in much efforts to developing
different slicing units in unit operations such as
potato, yam, and cassava chippers etc. For instance,
Bhongirinar et al. (1994) reported that a power
operated continuous ripened banana slicer was
developed at Bhaba Atomic Research Centre
[BARC], Mumbai, India for commercial purpose.
Kacharu et al, (1995) reported that power operated
raw banana slicer with three blades mounted on
rotary cutter at 120 angle. A pedal operated cassava
chipper was equally developed at Agricultural
Chemistry and Food Science [DAC-FS] center in the
Philippians with 230kg/hr capacity. The National
Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research
[NISIR], Malaysia had developed a cassava chipping
machine which consist of two blades and produces
slice of 2-3mm thick.
A 270kg /hr capacity motorized potato cutter was
designed by the International Potato Center [CIP]
Malaysia while Hiong (2007) designed and
constructed an affordable banana and yam cutting
machine powered by electric motor for making
snacks. The machine slice approximately 26,250
slices of bananas and 22,720 slices of yams just one
hour. The machine when compared to the manual
slicer, has an estimated cutting speed of about 275%-
425% faster depending on the type of material to be
cut. Augustin (2001) developed a typical manually
operated banana slicer with five cylinders to contain
bananas with a set of blade attached to a round plate
that chips 1200 pieces of banana in one minute in
India.
 Bello et al., (2017). Development and performance evaluation of a small scale multi-crop chipper.
Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Nigeria Institution of Agricultural Engineers
(NIAE), Umudike, 2017.
Commercially available multipurpose
slicer/cutters also called manual slicer are hand-held,
hand-operated and widely used in Asian and African
countries. Home usage of multi-purpose slicer/cutter
is only used as a kitchen gadget. The multi-purpose
slicer is a versatile classic that enjoys many uses,
perhaps because the multi-purpose slicer can be used
for all sorts of vegetables like onions, yam, carrots,
turnips, cucumbers, radishes, squash etc.
In Nigeria, manually operated chipper has been
developed by rural agricultural industrial
development services [PAIDS] and International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture [IITA]’s post-
harvest unit. The size of the chips produced are
36mm thick 6-10mm wide and 100-250mm long.
Oladeji, (2014) developed a dual power chipper
(hand operated and 3.75kW gasoline motor) to
produce fine chips with an average working capacity
of 36.28 kg/hr and 346 kg/hr and efficiency of
91.83% and 87.09% respectively. Obayopo et al.,
(2012) reported a plantain slicing device that
achieves 92.6% efficiency, when used to make a 5
mm cut in moderately ripe and 91% for moderately
unripe matured plantain pulps. However these slicers
are lacking in the provision for slicing the banana
directly over the drying pan.
Unfortunately, our local industries do not produce
much of this kind of machines, save for the imported
products which are often very expensive. Another
problem associated with available chippers is that
most are designed specifically for the processing of
a particular product. Hence, the use of chip slicing
machine that are portable, affordable, easy in
operation and capable of chipping multiple crops will
be valuable addition to food processing industry. Yet
no such machine was developed to meet the
requirements of small scale multi-crop chipping. The
objective of this work therefore is to develop and
evaluate the performance of such a multi-crop
chipper.
2. MATERIALS AND METHOD
2.1 Cutting dynamics
Two distinguished stages in material cutting process
include preliminary compaction and material
94
failure/subsequent cutting (Sitkei, 1986).
Preliminary material compaction under deformation
force caused the material under the cutting edge to
yield while the second stage involve the failure of the
material and subsequent cutting (Sitkei, 1986, Bello,
2010). During this stage, a cutting edge (knife)
penetrates into the material, overcoming its strength
and cutting through and thereby separating it. The
cutting process of forage crops is greatly influenced
by its physical and rheological properties. Without
knowing the optimum cutting energy requirements
of forage crops, it is hardly possible to design an
efficient forage harvesting machine.
2.2 Design considerations and equations
In practice, cutting is not a static but a dynamic
process. With increase in cutting velocity,
preliminary compaction decreases as a result of the
material inertia and plastic behaviour owing to the
low velocity of deformation of plastic materials,
impact loading by a rapidly moving knife edge
propagates only slowly in the material i.e. it is
concentrated in the material found around the edge.
The thickness of the cutting edge influence the
cutting resistance in various ways (Bello, 2010;
Bello and Adegbulugbe, 2010). More often, cutting
method and size reduction processes have been
identified as major contributing factor to product
performance, consumer acceptability and better
storage. Consideration was also given to the type of
knife edge used (either plain, serrated or a
combination of both).
Machine performance factors: Machine
performance is highly dependent on the physical,
mechanical and other important engineering
properties such as average diameter, average length,
average width, load requirement to cut and cutting
load per unit width etc. of the crop. The average
values of result obtained were considered in the
design and development of the slicer.
Determination of cutting forces: The cutting/slicing
process is a dynamic process, therefore, increasing
the cutting velocity decreases initial compaction as a
result of the material’s inertia and plastic behaviour
whereby energy requirements are lowered.
 Bello et al., (2017). Development and performance evaluation of a small scale multi-crop chipper.
Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Nigeria Institution of Agricultural Engineers
(NIAE), Umudike, 2017.
Penetration of the knife into the material = [(1/
first causes compaction up to a height h, until a given 2) + … … … … … .7
pressure is reached at which rupture occurs (Figure At the instant of cutting, a force Pe acts on the cutting
1a). The distance between individual ruptures is a edge and is given by
function of the cutting thickness and the angle of the = Fσ = σ … … … … … … … … .8
edge. The peripheral force acting at any point along the
knife axis is obtained from the kinematic relations
during cutting. Total vertical force acting per unit
length h is evaluated by equation 4 (Bello and
Onilude, 2011).

Figure 1: (a) Material compaction mechanism (b) = + ℎ [ −

2
Geometry of cutting angles and force components. + ν( 1 + )] … … … … … … … 9
At equilibrium, the vertical forces on the two faces is
At the instant of cutting, a force, P at the cutting edge expressed thus
advanced the knife, compacting successive regions = + + + … … … … … … … … .10
of materials until rupture occurs again. The force P Specific energy requirements in cutting: An
decomposed into two forces; normal force acting on important characteristics of cutting as a function of
the sharpened face and the other at the vertical side cutting velocity is the decrease in energy
of the knife as represented in Figure 1(b). The normal requirements with increase in cutting velocity and a
force acting on the sharpened face decomposed into high proportion of useful cutting work (Akritidis,
horizontal and vertical components determined using 1974; Prasad and Gupta, 1975; Oke et al., 1984;
equation 1. Mohammed, 1990 and Jekendra, 1999; Yiljep and
= + …………………1 Mohammed 2005). The work done in pushing the
Applying Hooke’s law to the material, the vertical compressed material toward the cutting edge is
component of force Pv was evaluated from equation expected to overcome the compression work and
below. frictional forces. Such factors as age of material,
= ℎ ℎ thickness of the cutting edge and the angle of
sharpening (bevel angle) influences the cutting
= ℎ …………………2 resistance and energy consumption. The specific
energy requirements of cutting is obtained by
And the horizontal component of force
dividing the total work by the cross-sectional area of
=ν ℎ ℎ material involved in cutting.
= … … … … … … … … … … … … .11
=ν ℎ …………………3
2
The tangential force arising from the normal force on The torque transmitted overcomes the frictional
the edge is given as resistance in the compression chamber, the cutting
= = …………………5 force and the force required to push the compressed
A relationship exists between the shear angle and materials in the direction of cut. The torque T
the rake angle given by the expression: produced by the cutting disc is transmitted to the
2 +  − α = 90° … … … … … … 6 cutting edge and is given by Shigley and Mitchel,
On the vertical side of the knife, the vertical (1983) as.
/
component of the tangential force is evaluated from 16
= … … … … … … … … … … … … .12
equation
95
 Bello et al., (2017). Development and performance evaluation of a small scale multi-crop chipper.
Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Nigeria Institution of Agricultural Engineers
(NIAE), Umudike, 2017.
2.3 Machine description
The experimental machine used in the study is shown
in Figure 22. The machine consists of the in-feed
chute, knife housing, the cutter assembly and power
transmission.
Figure 2: Developed experimental machine
The in-feed chute is a semi-circular cross-sectional
area of size 60 mm. This configuration was selected
for round and longitudinal slice, respectively, by
considering the maximum effective width and
diameter of peeled banana. The length of the feeding
chute was taken as 200 mm for providing sufficient
space for feeding crops from the top. The cutter
assembly comprises of a cutter disc, disc blades and
locknut. The blades are made up of galvanized steel
from hygiene, corrosion and rusting points of view
(Redford, 2000). The length of blade was kept as 115
mm. The thickness of blade was kept as 3 mm
considering cutting load and yield stress of crop
material.
Power transmission assembly: Power is transmitted
from a 1hp induction motor to the cutter plate shaft
by means of an A-type V belt and pulley
arrangement. The slicer is powered by 0.0.75 kW
single phase, electric motor. The 520 mm long
0.75mm diameter horizontal shaft is suspended on
two bearings attached to the roof of the machine. The
machine is made sturdy while light in weight by
using suitable sizes of angle iron. The frame is 550 ×
320 × 250 mm size, fabricated from 50x50x3mm
Mild Steel. These sections are joined by electric arc
96
weld. The shaft bearings, cutter plate shaft,
housing cover and prime mover were mounted on
this frame.
2.4 Performance test procedure
Three knives (Figure 3) were designed and used to
slice three selected crops (garden egg, cassava and
plantain (ripe and unripe). Machine performance was
evaluated with regards to the machine capacity,
roundness index, and efficiency of slicing, slice
thickness etc.
Figure 3: Developed experimental machine and
knives
Machine capacity: The capacity of the machine was
determined by feeding peeled material into the
machine and weighing the slices produced
irrespective of damage. The capacity of machines is
expressed as material sliced (kg) per unit time.
= /ℎ … … … … … … … … 13
Where = Capacity of machine, W = Input weight
(kg), t = time (hr)
Slicing efficiency: Slicing efficiency is the inverse
term of breaking percentage. The efficiency of
slicing was determined by following expression
(Balasubramaniam et al. 1993).
−
∝= 100% … … … … … … … … . .14
Where:
∝ = slicing efficiency (%)
WT = weight of total slices (kg)
WD = weight of damaged slices (kg)
Percentage breakage: The damaged or broken slices
are defined as the slices having the area less than 2/3
of its circumscribing circle. Breakage percentage is
calculated as the ratio of weight of damaged slices to
the total weight of slices.
 Bello et al., (2017). Development and performance evaluation of a small scale multi-crop chipper.
Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Nigeria Institution of Agricultural Engineers
(NIAE), Umudike, 2017.
plantain efficiently with excellent chips
= … … … … … … … … … .15
product relative to results obtained during careful
The machine was fabricated according to designed manual slicing operations.
specifications. The average moisture content of
samples used in this test was 75%, (wet basis). Three
sets of knives having similar configurations but
different sharpening angles of 20, 25, and 30 were
produced for the test. Figure 4: Chipped crops
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Data obtained in measuring physical characteristics
The chips produced from the tests carried on the of sample crops were recorded (Table 1). This data
machine using different crops under prevailing was used to determine the chipping and damage
operational conditions is shown in (Figure 4). The efficiencies.
machine performance was satisfactory, in that the
machine was capable of slicing garden egg fruits and
Table 1: Physical characteristics of crops sample
Cassava
Diameter (mm) Mean diameter
Weight (kg) Length (mm)
Major Minor (mm)
0.5 170.72 30.69 30.64 30.67
0.45 190.32 30.47 20.98 25.73
0.40 118.09 30.93 20.87 25.90
Ripe (Unripe plantain)
0.32(0.32) 186.90(196.38) 30.48(30.38) 20.56(20.37) 25.52(25.38)
0.25(0.25) 189.20(193.40) 30.32(30.53) 20.92(20.64) 25.62(25.59)
0.28(0.28) 197.87(192.64) 30.60(30.85) 30.48(30.20) 30.54(30.53)
The weight was determined using an electronic weighing balance while characteristic sizes of the
chips produced were take using a vernier calliper (Table 2).
Table 2: Characteristics of chipped product samples (Cassava and Unripe plantain)
Cassava
Sample Length Diameter Thickness
1 45.50(42.70) 35.40(35.50) 4.10(4.90)
2 40.50(43.40) 32.70(34.90) 5.00(3.80)
3 41.80(45.40) 35.50(33.58) 4.50(3.30)
4 49.10(42.75) 32.60(32.57) 5.10(4.20)
Tables 3, shows the data obtained from chipping plantain (ripe and unripe), and Table 4 indicate
machine performance in chipping cassava.
Table 3: Performance test in chipping ripe (unripe) plantain
*t W [kg] [kg] [kg] kg/hr] α [%] [%]
Ripe (unripe)
0.016 0.32(0.32) 0.18(0.28) 0.14(0.04) 20.00(20.00) 59.78(85.72) 43.75(12.50)
0.01 0.25(0.25) 0.17(0.22) 0.08(0.03) 25.00(25.00) 47.06(86.36) 32.00(12.00)
0.012 0.28(0.28) 0.18(0.26) 0.10(0.02) 44.8(26.8) 44.44(96.16) 35.71(7.14)
0.008 0.35(0.35) 0.22(0.32) 0.13(0.03) 43.75(43.75) 40.91(90.63) 37.14(8.57)

97
 Bello et al., (2017). Development and performance evaluation of a small scale multi-crop
chipper. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Nigeria Institution of
Agricultural Engineers (NIAE), Umudike, 2017.

Mean 28.89(28.89) 48.05(89.72) 37.15(10.05)

*t = time (hr), W = Input weight (kg), WT = weight of total slices (kg), WD = weight of damaged
slices (kg) = Capacity of machine, α = slicing efficiency (%).
Table 4: Performance test in chipping cassava samples
t [hr] W [kg] [kg] [kg] kg/hr] α [%] [%]
0.009 0.5 0.42 0.08 55.55 80.95 16.00
0.007 0.45 0.38 0.17 64.29 55.26 37.78
0.006 0.40 0.35 0.05 66.67 85.71 12.50
0.007 0.45 0.4 0.05 64.26 87.5 11.11
Mean 53.58 86.15 19.35

The machine capacity was determined by feeding
the material into the machine and time taken to
totally chip the material was recoded. The results
showed that speed and weight has significant
effects on chipping capacity, chipping efficiency,
and chips geometry. At higher speeds and
material weights, the machine capacity increased
with consequence of higher percentage of chip
damage and reduced chipping efficiency.
The machine mean performance efficiencies for
different crops varies only marginally (Tables 3
and 4) with considerable difference in ripe
plantain slicing efficiency (48.05%). However,
the capacity varies as a result of differences in
weight distribution and other crop physiological
factors. The percentage of breakages are
typically higher in ripped plantain (37.15%)
cassava (19.35%) than other crops due to higher
moisture content of ripped plantain and crispy
nature of cassava.
4. CONCLUSION
A multi-crop chipper was designed and tested for
performance and its efficiencies determined
slicing cassava, plantain, and garden egg using
single, double and three edge disc blades. This is
a major advantage over existing and single unit
crop chipper machines. The blade variation
shows a significant differences in size of chips
obtained. There is a considerable reduction in
blade number to chip sizes in the order: 3 knife
<2 knife <1 knife d 4.8mm > 2.3mm > 1.5mm.
The determined efficiencies and capacities for
98
chipping different crops were desirable with
highest efficiency recorded in chipping unripe
plantain (89.72%) while the lowest efficiency
recorded in chipping ripe plantain (48.05%). The
highest machine capacity (53.58% was recorded
in chipping garden egg. The machine is capable
of maintaining high efficiency when used to
make a 5 mm cut in unripe matured plantain
pulps.
Notations
β = Knife cutting edge or sharpening angle
Pv = Vertical component of the cutting force
Ph = Horizontal component of the cutting force
E = Mean modulus of deformation relative to the
giving loading interval 3.5-4.0cm-2 daN
H = Layer thickness (mm)
h = Preliminary compaction at the beginning of
cutting proper
= Poisson’s ratio (0.1-0.35). For forage
materials, the Poisson’s ratio increases with
increase in density,
μ = Coefficient of friction,
= the shear angle.
α = Tool rake angle. A rake angle of 20o is
selected
σb is the yield strength of the material under the
cutting edge.
δ = the edge thickness of knife.
d = the pulley diameter dependent on the axis of
shaft rotation.
F = Specific energy requirements
A= Total work
 Bello et al., (2017). Development and performance evaluation of a small scale multi-crop
chipper. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Nigeria Institution of
Agricultural Engineers (NIAE), Umudike, 2017.
Af = Cross sectional area of cutting
T = Torque (Nm)
s= Allowable shear stress for shaft
7
(3.7921x10 N/m ) 2
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