DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF COWPEA DEHULLER

Abstract

A cowpea machine was developed using locally available materials to reduce drudgery attached to traditional dehulling of the seeds. The machine consisted of the dehulling chamber made from 1.5 mm thick galvanized metal sheet, the dehulling mechanism obtains its drive from a 3 phase15 kW electric motor with a speed of 750 rpm. The principle of operation of the machine is by feeding the soaked cowpea through the hopper into the dehulling chamber which invariably brought about dehulling of the cowpea and the dehulled cowpea is collected through the outlet into the collector. The machine was evaluated based on soaking time and dehulling time. The results showed that the dehulling rate increases with increase in time of soaking. The optimum level of 98 % efficiency was observed at 6 minutes and 15 minutes time of soaking and time of dehulling respectively.