Development Of An Integrated Palmfruit Processing Machine Using Specifications Generated From Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE):-Chukwudum Henry E

ABSTRACT

Over the years, Palm oil has consistently been the world’s largest source of edible oil, accounting for over 38 million tones or 24.9% ofthe global edible oil production. Palm oil is reckoned to be ofhigh importance in the diet ofthe average Nigerian, as it is estimated that about two liters of palm oil is consumed by every household (of about 4-5 persons) on a weekly basis. Despite the high dependency on the oil palm by the Nigerian populace, locally existing oil palm processing technology are associated with problems such as; unhygienic production processes, high rate ofhuman energy consumption, time wastage and drudgery etc., thus this research work. Developing different capacities ofthis integrated machine in line with the processing capacities ofsmall and medium scale oil mills will require repetitive design computations to select and size the appropriate components for any desired capacity ofthe machine. This process is way beyond the expertise ofmost local fabricators who mostly rely on trial and error to select components of machines they fabricate, and this most times result to the development of a machine that is not performing efficiently compared to the prototype. To eliminate these shortcomings, Oti (2020) developed a Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) system for designing any desired capacity ofthe machine. This project locks in on the development of an integrated palm fruit processing machine using knowledge-based engineering (KBE) system.