A Coconut deshelling machine for improved safety and productivity

Abstract

Coconut is the third largest cash crop grown in Sri Lanka. There are a variety of coconut-based products available, and deshelling is an essential step in the manufacturing processes of all those products. However, the deshelling process faces several safety concerns which are yet to be addressed. It was found through field visits that on average, 4 accidents per month are reported by the laborers who work in deshelling machines. These injuries are caused by slippage of coconut when it is held onto the cross cutter of the deshelling machine. Another concern was that the coconut kernel was damaged slightly by the cross-cutter, the cutting wheel of the current machine. This damage is significant when a large-scale coconut processing plant with over 200,000 nuts daily capacity is considered. The scarcity of skilled laborers to operate the deshelling machines is another challenge. Training new laborers is both a time-consuming and costly process. Therefore, this research aims to develop a new mechanism for coconut deshelling to be used in an industrial setup. The mechanism intends to enhance the safety of the operation while reducing the damage to the kernel and to reduce human intervention in the process. The scope of this project is limited to deshelling a coconut starting from dehusked coconut and the intended output is kernel with brown skin while dehusking and paring will be out of the scope.