Design, Development and Performance Evaluation of Semi Automated Citrus Juice Extractor Machine

Abstract

Citrus juice extractor machine has been design, fabricated and can be found in numerous studies at different areas. These citrus juice extractor machine is a semi automated one that operates from the entrance of citrus into the hopper basket till the filteration of the juice for consumption. The operational procedure for the extraction of juice starts from the stacking of neatly cleaned citrus of same size in the basket position ontop of the extractor machine which in turn passes through the hopper to the extraction chamber where the oranges are cut into two equal halves for the twin knaggy ball shearing then the pulps are dropped through the remaning collector to the residue collection bin while the extracted juice flows through the seize to a container for consumption. The optimal operating speed of the juice extraction machine was found to be 15rpm, while the optimum feed was found to be F1 (2.5 kg/min). The average juice extraction efficiency at optimum speed (S) and feed rate (F) was 64%; juice yield at optimum Speed and Feed was 60%; juice extraction losses was 35% at optimum Speed and Feed.