Coconut husk chipping machine

Описание: Coconut is one of the major plantation crops in Sri Lanka which accounts for approximately 12% of all agricultural produce in Sri Lanka. Total land area under cultivation is 395,000 hectares and about 2,500 million nuts are produced per year. There are many coconut based products manufacturers and exporters in Sri Lanka and coconut husk chips products are one of those. Coconut husk chips are used as a growing medium and it has increased air fill porosities and water holding capacity. Also it is ideal to use as a medium which absorbs urine and animal residue in animal farms. Further Coconut Husk Chips are used in European countries for water purification and after the purification, Europeans use coconut chips as an organic-fertilizer. Hence the Coconut Development Authority in Sri Lanka expects a fifty percent growth in exports of husk chips within a year by introducing a proper mechanism to make the maximum use. Having that in mind the aim of this project is to develop a safe, cost effective machine to produce coconut husk chips of different sizes as required. Field survey is conducted and problems/end user concerns in the existing machines are identified. Functional Analysis (FA) of the coconut husk chipping is established. Later a Functions Means Tree (FMT) is established by adding the solution concepts for each functions and sub-functions considering the existing machines. A novel concept for coconut husk chipping is developed by analyzing the FMT. A functional prototype is developed and the design is shown to be functionally acceptable, and directions for further improvements and development are outlined.