Design and Development of a Second-class Lever for Maize Shelling Operation

Abstract

Abstract In this study, a lever was designed for manual shelling of maize. The lever is made up of a 30 mm diameter rod with a 10 mm diameter hole drilled at one end and a 20 mm diameter rod welded vertically to the rod, 400 mm from the other end. The maize ear is placed inside a 70 mm diameter tube before shelling and when the lever is pushed the maize ear is forced through the shelling tube, and in the process the seeds fall off the cob. Explicit Dynamic Analysis of the lever done in Ansys showed that the lever will effectively shell maize ears without damage to both seed and cob. Results of the Analysis gave 0.26485 m and of -9.7419e− 8 m as maximum and minimum values of directional deformation, 76386 Pa and 0 Pa respectively as maximum and minimum values of equivalent stress, 9,4005e− 6 m/m and 0 m/m as maximum and minimum values of equivalent strain, 29.507 m/s2 and 7e− 2 m/s2 as maximum and minimum values of total acceleration, and 21085 Pa and − 23604 Pa as maximum and minimum values of shear strain respectively. This study therefore develops and new and cost-effective means of shelling maize ears which requires neither electricity nor any sort of fuel to operate.