Design and optimization of operating parameters for areca nut de-husker

Abstract

Abstract Areca nut is one of the major commercial crops grown in South India. The raw areca nut has to be peal (de-husked) to get its nut. The manual peeling practice is laborious process and is not safe for labor. Manual de-husking is time-consuming, and there is a shortage of labor. The exisiting machines developed are not so capable to completely remove the outer layer of the areca nut due to the difference in the size of the area nut, and the areca nuts damaged due to the non-availability of the optimal process parameters, and they are expensive. Damaged areca nuts have lesser value in the market. This paper deals with the design and development of an areca nut de-husking machine which can de-husk areca nuts of different sizes without damaging it. The flow of paper starts with the definition of the problem, relevant need analysis, field survey, and literature survey based on these data areca nut de-husking machine designed. Finally, the factor effect study using the Design of Experiment (DOE) method is presented in this paper.