Development and Performance Evaluation of a Manually-Operated Multipurpose Fruit Juice Extractor

Abstract

A simply and manually-operated multipurpose fruit juice extractor was designed, constructed and its performance was evaluated in terms of juice yield, extraction efficiency, juice content, extraction loss and extraction capacity. The machine has two major parts which are: the extraction chamber and the structural frame. The extraction chamber is made of stainless steel and consists of a turning handle (f24.5 x 400mm), screw rod (f32 x 620 mm), compression plate (f100 mm), perforated inner cylinder (f115 x 180 mm), non-perforated outer cylinder (f120 x 180 mm) and discharge pipe. The structural frame (350 mm x 415 mm x 60 mm) is made of mild steel of U-channel section. The machine basically works on the principle of transmission of compressive force to rupture the juice cells of the fruit for the liberation of juice. Sweet orange, watermelon, red apple, green apple, pineapple, lime, lemon and grape were used for the performance evaluation process. Results obtained showed that pineapple had the highest values of juice yield (68.74%),juice content (66.40%), extraction capacity (92.85 g/min) and extraction efficiency (82.99%) while sweet orange and lime had the lowest extraction loss and extraction capacity of 1.67% and  29.81 (g/min) respectively.