DESIGN ANALYSIS OF DUALLY OPERATED FISH FEED PELLETIZER

Pelletisation of fish feed is necessary for growth rate measurement of the fish and wastages of the feed. The modern pelletizer is expensive and not portable, hence only large scale fish farmers who can afford it are using them, whereas, the small and medium fish farmers do not have the financial capacity to afford the machine. Hence the development of a portable, manually and mechanically operated pelletizer for the small and medium scale farmer. The machine was developed using available local materials. It has the hopper, the screw auger shaft, the barrel, the frame and the electric motor or drive lever as major components. The machine was developed and tested with 3 kg of fish feed mill using 2.2 kW electric motor of speed 2,900 rev/min. The feed was mixed with 200 cm3 water to slurry form to aid the extrusion and weighed to 3 kg before fed into the extrusion chamber of the machine. The screw auger kneaded the feed thoroughly and conveyed it to the discharge unit where it was forced through 8-holes die to form pellets. The efficiency of the machine was calculated to be 88.3% while the throughput was 30 kg/h. The machine is affordable at the cost of NGN 70, 000 and easy to maintain and operated