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Design and production of a fish feed pelletizing machine

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DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02001

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Design and production of a fish feed pelletizing machine

Paul Chukwulozie Okolie a, *, Iheoma Chigoziri Chukwujike b, Jeremiah Lekwuwa Chukwuneke a,
Jude Ezechi Dara a
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, PMB 5025, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria
b
Polymer and Textile Engineering Department, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, PMB 5025, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Animal feeds contributes to a greater percentage of the cost of production of livestock. For the increment in
Mechanical engineering productivity and profit, farmers are advised to produce their feed themselves to reduce the cost of production.
Fish feed This work is aimed at producing a simple single unit fish feed pelletizer at a lost cost for peasant farmers. A fish
Homogenous
feed pelletizer has been designed and constructed. It consists of hopper, screw conveyor, barrel, dies, drives
Production
Farmers
system and heater. The design was carried out using engineering principles with due consideration to cost, ease of
Pelletizer operation, serviceability, durability, and performance. It is designed to be driven by a 1.5 HP, three-phase electric
Mixture motor with a heating element of 1500 W attached to the barrel surface to ensure adequate heating of the feed as
they travel through the barrel. The test that determines the performance of the pelletizer was carried out which
showed a throughput capacity of 17 kg/h, machine efficiency of 73.33% and a pelletizing efficiency of 90.90%
with low mechanical damage of 9.10%. The cylindrical pellets size produced by the pelletizer was in the range of
2–8 mm diameter, which is suitable for fish and poultry farming. The machine was produced using locally sourced
materials at a production cost of one hundred and eight thousand naira only (N 108,000.00).

1. Introduction machine is capable of creating cylindrical pellet from a blend of dry

powdered stocks, such as molasses, steam or as a machine that is used to
An artificial feed is important for the improvement of fisheries and convert materials and food items such as maize, groundnuts and millets
achieving maximum yields from resources of fresh water (Bhosale et al., with other additives in good ratio.
2010). Fish meal is considered to be the best ingredients, due to its The process of extrusion is used to produce Pellets. According to
compatibility with the protein requirement of fish (Alexis et al., 1996). Mc-Donald et al. (1995), earlier, the feeding of fish, poultry and other
Augusto et al. (1973), Fagbenro (1988), Kwari and Igwebuike (2001), animals was based on local methods characterised by the milling of
Diarra et al. (2001) and along with other researchers, opined that the grains and cereals as meals on mortar and stones. The safe and healthy
utilization of various forms of farm and agro-industrial wastes and food preparations for the animals could not be attained let alone the
by-products for the formulation of complete feeds for livestock, poultry trend of growth and development, with the aim of achieving aesthetic
and aquatic life is feasible. The production of feed for livestock, poultry and market needs of these animals. Research show that animals prefer-
and aquatic life involves series of activities such as grinding, mixing, ably fed on solid and soft nutritious meals, and the pelleting machine is
pelleting and drying operations (Balami et al., 2013). Investigation shows one of the equipment that can be used to prepare this mixture of nutrients
that the few available small-scale processing equipment are not very in powdered form.
efficient, thus increasing the inability of farming activities. Historically, Further, it was stated by Kumar (1992) that pelleting machines can
the pellet has been used by various industries to describe a variety of serve the following functions: (1) moulding of feed meals like soft cap-
agglomerates produced from different and diverse raw materials. The sules for animals, which can be eaten easily by fish and poultry animals
proper use of traditional methods in existence and modern development (2) production of sawdust that can be used in a pellet stove (3) produc-
derived from various researches have really assisted in animal feed tion of iron ore pellets that varies in diameters for blast pig iron pro-
production through the processing of raw food items. Furthermore, the duction (4) production of chemical pellet. Moreover, the design and
investigation carried out by Amadi (2007) has shown that a pelleting construction of an electrically motorised operated pelleting machine are

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (P.C. Okolie).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02001
Received 23 November 2018; Received in revised form 11 April 2019; Accepted 20 June 2019
2405-8440/© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
P.C. Okolie et al. Heliyon 5 (2019) e02001


expedient in order to improve food security and technology for the Volume of hopper ¼ a2 þ b2 þ ab h=3 (1)
comfort to animals such as fish, turkey, chicken, birds, etc. Hence this
work is geared towards producing a simple single unit pelletizer for small Where b ¼ 150mm; a ¼ 450mm; h ¼ 350mmtherefore; V ¼ ½4502 þ
scale farming. The pelletizer should be capable of reducing the moisture 1502 þ ð150  450Þ 350 3 ¼ 34125000mm3 V ¼ 0:0341m3
=

content of the pellets, thereby reducing the stress that accompanies sun The mass flow through the hopper using Johanson equation is
drying in small scale feed production. calculated thus:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2. Materials and method Bg
Mass flow ¼ ρ A 0
(2)
2ð1 þ mÞtan∅
2.1. Machine description
Where : ρ0 ¼ bulk density of the material ð1300kg=m3 assumedÞ
A ¼ surface area of hopperð W x L ¼ 0:45 x 0:45 ¼ 0:2025m2 ÞØ ¼
The important components of the pelleting machine are the hopper
hopper angleg ¼ acceleration due to gravityð9:807 m=s2 Þ
where the feed meal is fed into the machine and the pelleting chamber in
m ¼ 0 ðsymmetrical slot hopperÞB ¼ w ¼ 0:45m
the form of worm auger or screw shaft which is seen to propel the feed.
The shaft is operated by pulley and belt system that is powered by an rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
0:45  9:807
electric motor. therefore mass flow through the hopper ¼ 1300  0:2025
2 tan 45
The output pellet is produced by compacting and forcing through a
die opening via a mechanical process (see Figs. 1–3).
¼ 306:99996kg=s

2.2. Design requirements 2.4.2. Capacity design for a given electric motor
The design for motor output power enables appropriate selection of a
For the design of pelleting machine, Mott (1985) asserted that the motor with enough power to start and run the machine at full load.
general requirements are:
Power ¼ F  V (3)

To steadily receive the mixture of feed into the machine. Where P ¼ Power in watts

To introduce the mixture of feeds into the cutting unit uniformly F ¼ Rotational force acting on the shaft in Newton ðNÞ

To uniformly cut the mixture of feeds

To steadily discharge the pellets out of the machine with ease. v ¼ linear velocity of the shaft ðm=sÞ

But F ¼ ma (4)
2.3. Material selection and production planning
where m ¼ Mass of rotating shaft in kilogram ðkgÞ a ¼
In this work good material selection was undertaken to achieve the Angular acceleration of the motor in radian=seconds square ðrad=s2 Þ
following purposes: convenient maintenance, to reduce the noise of the
machinery, to produce the machinery at an economical cost, to improve
and reduce dimensions, to achieve machine aesthetics, to improve the also; a ¼ ω2 r (5)
strength of the machinery, to improve its resistance to wear, corrosion ω ¼ angular velocity of the motor in radian=seconds ω ¼ v=r
and corrosive medium (Sharma and Aggar-Wal, 1998; Chukwulozie
et al., 2015). The materials utilised for the construction of the machines Therefore v ¼ ωr (6)
are; mild steel, stainless steel, cast iron, and chemical paint.
By putting Eq. (5) into (4)

F ¼ mωr (7)
2.4. Machine design
By putting Eqs. (7) and (6) into (3)
2.4.1. Hopper design
The shape of the hopper is in the form of a truncated pyramid with an P ¼ mω2 r  ωr (8)
inclination angle of 60 to enable conveying and storage of raw materials.

Fig. 1. 3D drawing of the fish feed pelletizer.

2
P.C. Okolie et al. Heliyon 5 (2019) e02001

Pr ¼ 1:96kw

2.4.4. Length of screw

This is determined from the length to diameter ratio (Ls: D) of the
screw. It is the ratio of the flight length of the screw to the original
diameter. A ratio of 13:1 was selected for portability. This means that the
flight length of the screw is 13D (where D ¼ original diameter of the
screw).
The feed section, transition section and the metering section are in the
ratios of 4D : 4D : 5D respectively.

Feed section length ðFlÞ ¼ 4D ¼ 4  105 ¼ 420mm

Fig. 2. Hopper.
Feed section depth ðFdÞ ¼ 0:2D ¼ 105  0:2 ¼ 21mm

Transition section length ðTlÞ ¼ 4D ¼ 4  105 ¼ 420mm

Metering section length ðMlÞ ¼ 5D ¼ 5  105 ¼ 525mm

Metering section depth ðMdÞ ¼ 0:33Fd ¼ 0:33  21 ¼ 6:93mm

For standard screw profile, the angle the flight makes with a line
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram for belt and pulley design.
perpendicular to the shaft
ðFlight angleÞ is 17:6568o :

But ω ¼ 2πN= 60 (9) Therefore the pitch of the screw; S ¼ π  D  tanδ (13)

Putting (9) into (8) Where; D ¼ diameter of screw

ð ¼ flight angle
 3 Flight width ðscrew thicknessÞ ¼ 0:1D ¼ 10:5mm
πN 2
P ¼ 8m r (10) Screw barrel clearance ¼ 0:17D ¼ 17:85mm
60

2.4.3. Determination of screw conveyor diameter and power to drive 2.4.5. Design of drive system (Belt and pulley design)
conveyor The machine runs with a 1400 rpm motor which will produce a speed
The diameter and power of the screw conveyor required for reduction of 70 rpm. This reduces the speed of the motor via a V – belt
conveying material at a rate of 20 kg/h for the capacity of a continuous before it enters the shaft. The smaller pulley is adapted at the motor and
screw conveyors were calculated from the expression given by (Spiva- connected to the bigger pulley on the shaft of the screw via a belt drive.
kovsky and Dyachkov, 1967). The bigger pulley welded to the shaft of the screw which passes through
two pillow bearing.
4Q
D2 ¼ (11)
60πðSnφpcÞ 2.4.6. Determination of pulley diameter
The speed of driving pulley versus speed of driven pulley can be
Where; Q ¼ capacity of screw conveyorS ¼ screw pitchn ¼
expressed by Shigley and Mischike (2001) and Khurmi and Gupta (2006)
speed of convey ¼ loading efficiencyp ¼
as;
free bulk density of the material; c ¼
loading factor depending on the inclined angle to the horizontal D1 N1 ¼ D2 N2 (14)
The recommended values by (Spivakovsky and Dyachkov, 1967) for
slow flowing abrasive material are Where, D1 andN1 are the diameter and speed of driving pulley.
Also, D2 and N2 are the diameter and speed of driven pulley.
S ¼ 0:8D; φ ¼ 0:125 and c ¼ 1 for inclination angle b0 ¼ 0: In other to get a speed of 112 rpm on the drive shaft using an electric
The recommended minimum and maximum speed of conveyor are motor of 1400 rpm, the diameter of the driven pulley is calculated thus
200–490 rpm (Spivakovsky and Dyachkov, 1967) using a pulley of 40 mm diameter for the driver;

D3 ¼ 4  20=60  3:142  0:8  0:125  475  785 1400rpm  40mm ¼ 112rpm  D2

D ¼ 0:105m ¼ 105mm D2 ¼ 1400 x 40=70

Pr ¼ QLðω0 þ sinβ Þ=367 (12) D2 ¼ 500mm

ωo is 4:0 for slow – flowing abrasive material, Therefore, for a driving pulley of 40 mm diameter, the driven pulley
inclination angle of conveyor βo is 0o and diameter was calculated from the above as 500 mm.

L ¼ length of conveyor 2.4.7. Determination of belt length

With known pitch diameters of pulleys D2 ¼ 500 mm, D1 ¼ 40 mm
Pr ¼ 9  20ð4 þ 0Þ=367 and center distance between motor/shaft pulley, C ¼ 340 mm. The length

3
P.C. Okolie et al. Heliyon 5 (2019) e02001

of belt required is calculated using the equation below: ¼ ð114mmÞ2 x 3:142 x 860mm

L ¼ 2C þ ð D2  D1 =4CÞ þ 1:57ð D2 þ D1 Þ (15)

¼ 35116751:52mm3
L ¼ 2ð340Þ þ ½500  40 = ð4  340Þ þ 1:57ð500 þ 40Þ
2.4.10. Design of the frame
The base is designed to withstand the torque generated by the electric
L ¼ 2027:77mm
motor.
The torque generated is calculated thus;
2.4.8. Determination of tension in the belt
Tension T1 acting on the tight side of the belt and the tension T2 Torque ¼ 9:549P=N ðengineering toolbox:comÞ (19)
acting on the slack side of the belt. The values of T1 and T2 are calculated
using the Eq. (16); Where; P ¼ electric motor horse powers

T1  mv 2
fϕ N ¼ number of revolutions
¼ e (16)
T2  mv2 sin5:0θ
Torque ¼ 9:549  2= 1400 ¼ 0:00670Nm
Where; m ¼ mass of a unit h of the belt
The frame is designed using mild steel angel iron of tensile strength of
v ¼ Linear velocity of belt; 290 N/mm2 (Khurmi and Gupta, 2006). The list of the input and output
ϕ ¼ Angle of wrap on pulley (rad) parameters are shown in Table 1, below.
μ ¼ The friction coefficient between belt & pulley.
T1 ¼ Tension in the tight side of belt (N) 2.5. Machine construction
T2 ¼ Tension in the slack side of (N)
θ ¼ Groove angle for v – belt (degree). In the construction of the machine, a lot of parameters were
considered.
The maximum tension in the tight side of the belt depends on the
allowable stress of the material. For a B section belt the following pa-
rameters are given:

T1 ¼ allowable tension ¼ 900 N, Table 1

θ ¼ 38  0.50P, f ¼ 0.2 The table showing list of input and output parameters.

πDN INPUT PARAMETERS OUTPUT PARAMETERS

The linear velocity is given by V ¼ (17)
60 Parameters Symbol Unit Parameters Symbol Unit

Acceleration due to G m/ Angular velocity Ω rad/

V ¼ 3:142 x 0:04 x 1400=60 gravity sec2 of the motor sec
Angle of wrap А rad Screw barrel Sbc Mm
clearance
V ¼ 2:93m=s
Bulk density ρ o
kg/m 3
Angular А rad/
For small pulley acceleration of the sec2
motor
Capacity of screw Q kg/hr Feed section Fl Mm
ϕ ¼ ϕ1 ¼ 161:7 ð2:82 radÞ using θ ¼ 38:5 ð0:672 radÞ
conveyor length
Coefficient of М - Length of belt L Mm
e  μ  α=sin5:0 θ ¼ 5:54 friction between
the belt and the
pulley
For large pulley; ϕ ¼ ϕ₂ ¼ 198:26 ð3:46radÞ Convey speed N rpm Power required to Pr kw
drive the
e  μ  α =sin0:5θ ¼ 8:61 conveyor
Diameter of driven D2 mm Flight width Fw Mm
The small pulley with the highest value of 5.54 will be used as a basis pulley
for the design. Substituting the value of T1 ¼ 900 N, m ¼ 0.19 and V into Diameter of driving D1 mm Metering section Md Mm
pulley depth
the equation. The tension T2 on the slack side can be calculated as:
Flight angle Δ degree Feed section Fd Mm
2
depth
900 – 0:19ð2:93Þ T2 – 0:19ð2:93Þ ¼ 5:54
2
Groove angle Θ degree Tension on the T1 and N
tight and slack T2
side of the belt
T2 ¼ ð898:4 þ 9:03Þ=5:54
Hopper angle degree Volume of hopper V m3
Hopper height H mm Rotational force F N
T2 ¼ 163:8N acting on the shaft
Hopper inlet width A mm Mass flow rate M kg/s
Hopper outlet B mm Power of the P kw
2.4.9. Design of the barrel width electric motor
The barrel is designed to withstand a high temperature up to 400  C Loading factor C - Screw length Ls Mm
and to be a very good conductor of heat. The barrel is made of stainless Radius of the shaft R mm Screw diameter D Mm
steel which has a melting point of 1515  C and a thermal conductivity of Rotational speed of N Rpm Screw pitch S Mm
 shaft
50.2 W/m C.
Speed of the electric N1 Rpm Transition section Tl Mm
motor length
Volume of barrel ¼ volume of cylinder ¼ πr h 2
(18) Speed of driven N2 Rpm Metering section Ml Mm
pulley length

4
P.C. Okolie et al. Heliyon 5 (2019) e02001

2.5.1. Barrel construction suitable dimension was also purchased for use in the extruder. The shaft
The barrel is constructed by machining a round hollow mild steel is 1190 mm in length and 35 mm in diameter.
pipe into an appropriate length of 860 mm. It has an outer diameter of
114 mm and an inner diameter of 106 mm with a thickness of about 4 2.5.3. Die design and construction
mm. Circular wedges with holes for the passing of bolts were attached The extruder needed a die which could sustain the high pressure of
to the barrel at both ends. This was done for the ease of maintenance material conveyed by the feed screw. The die was made using 8 mm
and assembly of the inner components (i.e. screw and bearing thickness mild steel plate. It has a diameter of 204 mm and is removable.
replacement and adjustment). A circular-shaped heating element of Finally, sixty (60) numbers of holes were drilled around the surface of the
2000 W 415 V and a thermocouple was fixed on the barrel surface to die plate to make way for the resin pellets to pass through. The diameter
ensure thermo-mechanical heating of the resin pellets and thermal of each drilled hole is 4 mm.
regulation.
2.5.4. Machine construction
2.5.2. Screw and shaft construction The machine was fabricated based on the design specification. The
A 114 mm screw conveyor was constructed by a normal machining construction was carried out with locally sourced materials to reduce the
process. It was reduced to 105 mm making a clearance of 4.5 mm be- cost of production to meet the design objective. Each of the components
tween screw and barrel. The shaft protrudes out of the casing along the was designed and fabricated following the due fabrication process as
drive section of the machine and entered the bearing housing before it shown in Fig. 4. This entails marking and cutting out the required shape
finally enters the larger pulley. The shaft also extends out of the die plate and dimension, welding of the parts to form the components, and surface
centre and the second bearing is housed inside the barrel. A bearing of finishing to improve on the aesthetics. The fabricated components were

Fig. 4. Flowchart of design steps.

5
P.C. Okolie et al. Heliyon 5 (2019) e02001

Table 2
The table showing the cost of the machine.
S/ MATERIALS SPECIFICATION QTY UNIT TOTAL
N PRICE (N)
(N)

1 Frame 200 angular bar 3 mm 2 3,500 7,000

thick length
2 Hopper Sheet metal 1800 mm 1 sheet 2,000 2,000
 400 mm x 2 mm
3 Conveyor 45 mm thick stainless 1500 10 15,000
shaft pipe, mm
4 Barrel 400 stainless pipe 1000 15 15,000
Fig. 5. Fish feed pelletizer picture.
mm
5 Electric 415 V Heater 2 num 3,000 6,000
hearter
6 Control Control pannel 1 num 7,500 7,500
board
4 Electric 3-phase 2 hp 1 num 25,000 25,00
motor
5 Bearing 45 mm bearing 2 num 4,500 9,000
6 Pulleys 500 mm, 40 mm 1 num 3,000 3,000
7 Belt Type A v-belt 1 num 1,000 1,000
8 Electrode Guage 10 ½ 5,000 2,500
packet
8 Cutters Big cutter 1 1,500 1,500
9 Paint 1 tin 1,500 1,500
10 Transport 2,000
11 Labour 10,000
Total 108,000
Fig. 6. Graph of dryness against temperature.

weighed and fed into the pelletizer to obtain the dry pelletized feed. The
time taken for complete pelletizing was taken, the pelletized sample was
weighed, and the dry feed was collected for the test. The throughput
capacity, machine efficiency, and pelletizing efficiency was calculated
using Eqs. (20), (21), and (22) below.
The throughput capacity (Tpc) is given as;

WR
Tpc ¼ (20)
t

Where WR is the recovered weight after pelletizing, and t is the time

taken for complete pelletizing.
The machine efficiency (ε) is given as:

Fig. 7. Graph of dryness against time. WR

ε¼ (21)
WF

Where WF is the weight of feed fed into the machine

then assembled to give the desired machine shown in Fig. 5 below (see
Pelletizing efficiency (ɳ) is given as;
Figs. 6 and 7).
WP
2.5.5. Bill of material selection and cost η¼ (22)
WR
The following were put into consideration in selecting the materials
for the construction of palm nut and fibre separator; Where WPis the weight of the pelletized sample.

i. Availability of materials 2.6.1. Throughput capacity

ii. Suitability of the materials for effective operation The throughput is the rate at which the feed sample fed into the
iii. Cost effectiveness. machine is been recovered. This was obtained using Eq. (20). In this
work, 3 kg of the homogenous feed mixture was fed into the machine
Table 2 below shows the machine components, the materials selected and 2.2 kg of the feed was recovered at a time interval of 8 min. This
for the components, and the cost. gave a throughput capacity of 0.275 kg/min, which is approximately 17
Hence the total cost for the production of the pelletizing machine is kg/h.
one hundred and eight thousand naira (N 108,000), which is equivalent
to three hundred and eight dollars ($ 308). 2.6.2. Machine efficiency
The machine efficiency is the ratio of the weight of the feed sample
2.6. Performance tests fed into the machine to the weight of the feed sample recovered after the
pelletizing process. This was calculated using Eq. (21), which gave a
A series of test was carried out after the design and construction of the machine efficiency of 73.33%. Hence the percentage loss in the pellet-
machine, to determine the throughput capacity, machine efficiency, izing process is 26.67%. This loss is significant as a result of the clearance
pelletizing efficiency and dryness of the feed. The homogeneous feed was between the tip of the screw and the barrel.

6
P.C. Okolie et al. Heliyon 5 (2019) e02001

Table 3 Declarations
Dryness of feed at a varying temperature.
S/N 1 2 3 4 5 Author contribution statement

TEMPERATURE ( C) 125 175 200 250 300
DRYNESS (%) 55 60 67 80 89 Okolie Paul Chukwulozie, ChukwujikeIheoma Chigoziri, Chukwu-
neke Jeremiah Lekwuwa & Dara Jude Ezechi: Conceived and designed
the experiments; Performed the experiments; Analyzed and interpreted
Table 4 the data; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data; Wrote
Dryness of feed at a varying time. the paper.
S/N 1 2 3 4 5

TIME (seconds) 5 15 20 40 55 Funding statement

DRYNESS (%) 53 57 65 76 81
This work was supported by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund
(TETfund), through Institution Based Research grant (IBR). Years
2012–2014 Merged TETFUND Research Projects (RP) Intervention Funds
2.6.3. Pelletizing efficiency 8th Batch. (2017).
The pelletizing efficiency was obtained using Eq. (22). This was used
to determine the effectiveness of the machine in producing the pellets.
Competing interest statement
The ratio of the weight of the pellets to the weight of the recovered feed
gives the pelletizing efficiency. The weight of the pellets (WP) was
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
determined by weighing the pellets, which was manually separated from
the recovered feed. The separated pellets weighed 2.0 kg. Hence the
Additional information
separating efficiency was obtained to be 90.90%. However, the me-
chanical damage obtained was 9.10% which arose from poor kneading as
No additional information is available for this paper.
the feed conveys along the barrel.

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terials at a production cost of one hundred and eight thousand naira only Shigley, J.E., Mischike, C.R., 2001. Mechanical Engineering Design, sixth ed. McGraw-
Hill Publication, New York.
(N 108,000.00) which is relatively cheap compared with available local Spivakovsky, A., Dyachkov, V., 1967. Conveyors and Related Equipment. Translated from
pelletizers without a heating system. the Russian by Don danemanis. peace publishers, pp. 113–118.

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