Steel work design, production and analysis of a fish feed mixing machine

As Nigeria props up her desire to boost local manufacturing and production industries, the need for proper design of an efficient and reliable fish feed mixing machine for safe and economic use cannot be overemphasized, as an efficient and reliable machine would minimize deterioration and losses during production to deliver good quality products (fish feeds) obtainable at the lowest production cost as well as the shortest production time. A blade-type fish feed mixer has been designed and fabricated. The mixer runs with a 1.5Hp, single-phase electric motor and has a production capacity of 50 kg/h. It was designed with the aid of auto cad software and fabricated using stainless steel and galvanized steel materials. All the fixed metal parts were joined using electric arc welding, while the detachable parts were fastened with an adequate size of bolt and nut. he effect of mixing time and speed on the homogeneity of the feed mix obtained was ascertained using the Central Composite Design tool of the Design-Expert software was used. The result showed that mixing time has a positive effect on the homogeneity of fish feed with its peak at about 25 minutes. the mixing speed also gives a positive effect with its peak at 220rpm. However, mixing speed beyond 220rpm gives a negative effect on the homogeneity of the feed. With the aid of the Auto cad inventor software, stress analyses were conducted on the conveyor assembly, considering gravity forces, body forces, remote forces, and moment. On testing, the efficiency of the machine was evaluated to be 75 %. The finite element analysis gave a maximum von mixes stress of 53.7697 MPa for the assembly which is not up to half of the yield strength of the material used for the machine. Hence, the machine is safe and durable.