DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF A SCREW CONVEYOR

Abstract

Grain must be transported from one location to another. Several disadvantages are associated with grain transportation, especially manual loading into trailers and silos. The need for a grain handling equipment became pertinent; hence, this study designed and fabricated a simple and medium size auger aimed at conveying grains upward into a silo. The conveyor was fabricated from pure local materials considering the techno – economic properties. Tests were run on the conveyor using granular materials like maize, sorghum and gari at 13% moisture content. The angles of test were 0⁰, 15⁰, 30⁰, 45⁰, and 60⁰ for each grain. It was found capable of loading an average size silo of 2.68 m³ in 15 minutes. The conveyor has an efficiency of 99.95%, and average output capacities of 407.1, 282.4 and 263.1kg/hr. for 0^o, 30^o and 45^o respectively. The conveyor is easy to operate with minimal technical know-how.