Development and Performance Evaluation of Enset Corm Pulverizing Machine in Hadiya Zone, Central Region, Ethiopia

A study was conducted to develop and evaluate the performance of a motorized enset corm pulverizing machine. The experiment test was carried out by factorial design and the levels of operating speeds with levels of feeding rate were taken as treatment. The collected data were analyzed using Statistix 8 software. An analysis of variance revealed that the primary effects of operating speed and feed rate were observed to be significant at the 5% level but the interaction effect was not significant except for capacity. At an operating speed of 1800 rpm and a feeding rate of 10 kg min-1 , a maximum pulverizing capacity of 721.4 kg h-1 was found; at a speed of 1600 rpm and a feeding rate of 15 kg min-1 , the minimum pulverizing capacity of 611.6 kg h-1 was found. When the maximum pulverizing efficiency of 97% was found at an operational speed of 1800 rpm and a feeding rate of 15 kg min-1 , whereas the minimum pulverizing efficiency of 93.5% was found at an operating speed of 1600 rpm and a feeding rate of 10 kg min-1 . The minimum percentage loss was 3.4% at an operating speed of 1800 rpm and feeding rate of 15 kg min-1 , while the maximum percentage loss was 6.5% at an operating speed of 1600 rpm and feeding rate of 10 kg min.-1 According to test results, when operational speeds were increased from 1600 rpm to 1800 rpm, pulverizing capacity increased from 611.6 kg h-1 to 721.4 kg h-1 , pulverizing efficiency increased from 93.5 % to 97%, and the percentage of loss decreased from 6.5% % to 3.5%. From the test results, the percentage loss of the pulverizing machine tended to decrease with an increase in operating speed and feeding rate. This motorized machine had a high pulverizing capacity at its operating speed of 1800 rpm.