ABSTRACT

In this work, a groundnut oil extracting machine was designed and fabricated. The aim of this work is to design and fabricate a groundnut oil extracting machine that is cheap, light and efficient. The procedures employed to achieve this includes the design stage, construction stage and testing. The machine works on the principle of a screw press and its basic components are: a 3HP electric motor, hopper, the extracting unit, the outlet (oil collector), belt, driving and driven pulleys. The extracting unit comprises of the auger (screw shaft) and the cylindrical barrel. The electric motor was connected to the screw shaft with the aid of belt and pulleys. When the electric motor is switched on the auger starts to rotate at 60RPM. At this point, the roasted groundnuts are poured into the machine through the hopper and from there, it flows goes down into the extracting chamber where is crushed and pressed by the auger (screw shaft). The oil obtained is then collected through the oil collector. This system was designed so as to process 2kg of per batch so as to yield 0.5litre of groundnut oil. When the machine was tested it took 19 mins for 2kg of groundnut to be processed at an efficiency of 92%. This reduced time spent in extracting oil from groundnuts will result the reduction in the cost of the oil. Also, since the machine is made from cheap light materials, it is affordable even to those living in the rural area and it can provide job for young school leavers.