Abstract:
Despite the growing importance of Cassava, production is affected by a number of factors.
Among the factors, lack of postharvest technology as the main reason for its low production.
post harvests have been mentioned as the main reason for its low productivity. This research
was conducted to design and develop cassava slicer to enhance cassava production and
productivity. Corrosion-resistant stainless-steel material was used to construct the cassava
slicing machine. Cassava roots must be processed into a dried product to prolong shelf life
because they degrade within 48 hours after harvest, despite the fact that hand slicing is the
cheapest way being the most labor-intensive, time-consuming, and dangerous. Thus, to fill the
gap development and performance evaluation of an electrically powered cassava slicing
machine was necessary and became the objective of this study. To transfer power from a 2.5
hp single-phase electrical motor to a circular slicer disc, a 30 mm diameter shaft that was
permanently mounted on a frame made of 40 40 5 Angel iron milled steel was used. The
slicer disc which was constructed from stainless steel with a radius of 195 mm, frame, hopper,
discharge outlet, shaft, slicer disc protection cover, and pulley were among the main
components of the machine. The speed of the electrical motor was regulated using a variable
motor that has a speed range of 125 to 2500 rpm. To evaluate the performance of the developed
prototype, parameter such as machine capacity, slicing efficiency and slicing damage were
used. Three level of cassava tuber feed rate and four level of slicer disc speed were tested using
a factorial RCBD in three replication and analysis of variance was done using R statistical
software, while the Duncan's test was employed to compare treatment means at a 95 % level of
significance. According to the ANOVA result, the impact of speed on slicing capacity, slicing
efficiency, and slicing damage was significant at the probability level of P < 0.05. The
developed cassava slicing machine has 982.45 kghr
-1
, 87 %, and 9.78 % slicing capacity, slicing
efficiency and damaged slices respectively at slicing disc speed of 500 rpm and feed rate of 11
kg/min while, the minimum slicing damage (5.57 %) was recorded at 200 rpm motor speed and
same. The result showed that the cost-benefit ratio of hand slicing versus developed machine to
be 1:48.8. From this it is concluded that the developed cassava slicing machines was highly
economical and safe to use local by cassava producers.
Keywords: Cassava, Slicing, Efficiency, Capacity and Damaged