Design Modification and Comparative Analysis of Cassava Attrition Peeling Machine

An improved cassava attrition peeling machine was developed by modifying an existing cassava peeler. Comparative analysis was carried out on the test result which showed significant differences in the quantity and quality of peeled cassava in the existing attrition peeling methods and the modified technique. The results revealed that the modified machine performed well by giving an efficiency of 75.4%, throughput of 119 kg/h, tuber flesh loss of 5.88% and specific energy consumption of 57.1 kJ/kg. The average processing time of 17.5 min/ batch and cost of N6.25/kg (1$ US approximate to 360 N) resulted in 42.3% and 25% improvement respectively. This improved technique eliminated preoperational activities of trimming, sorting and grading of cassava tubers that characterised other techniques. Its operation was made simple requiring little or no skills from the operator while all materials used for fabrication were sourced locally to make the machine affordable for small scale processing industry