Development of a motorized yam slicer

Abstract

A motorized yam-slicing device was designed and developed to improve drying by increasing the surfaces area of yam tubers.  It consists of rotary blades, feeding chutes and electric motor.  The operating power was obtained from 1.5 hp electric motor (1,400 rpm) and, using pulley and belt with complete drive.  The device is manually fed with one tuber at a time.  Performance of the device was evaluated using the following parameters: slicing efficiency, throughput and percentage of non -uniform slices.  The slicing efficiency, throughput and non-uniform slices obtained was 52.3%, 315 kg/h and 47.65% respectively.  Making the chute adjustable to different tuber thickness would eliminate wobbling and further reduce the percentage of non-uniform slices.