Abstract

The Development, Testing, and Extraction Process Optimization of a Motorized Juice Extractor, has been carried out. In this work a motorized juice extractor was designed using design software, design manuals and textbooks for design calculations and materials selection. The detailed component design was carried out, and this was followed by detail-components production and assembly process. This was facilitated by bolting, welding and the use of fixtures for holding during the assembly process. The fully assembled motorized juice extraction machine was then subjected to performance test and the result showed that, the developed fruit juice extraction machine was satisfactory as evident from the juice extraction efficiency and extraction capacity. The quadratic models were chosen to predict the EE and EC. It was ascertained that extraction processing parameters influence the EE and EC.  For the range of variables considered in the performance analysis of the machine, maximum EE of 83.66% was obtained at the machine operating speed of 400 rpm, feed rate of 1.5 kg/min, blanching temperature of 80oC and blanching time of 6 min, while the maximum EC of 3.89 L/min was obtained at the machine operating speed of 500 rpm, feed rate of 1.0 kg/min, blanching temperature of 60oC and blanching time of 9 min.  Predicted optimum EE and EC of 81.32% and 3.89 L/min respectively at operating speed of 525.23 rpm, feed rate of 2.13 kg/min, blanching temperature of 54.20oC and blanching time of 8.73 min was obtained with a desirability of 0.977. Under these optimal juice extraction process conditions, the experimental values of 81.56% and 3.57 L/min were obtained for EE and EC respectively. The deviations between experimental and predicted values were low and statistically insignificant. The coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.77 and 0.76 for EE and EC respectively, show that there is an excellent correlation between the juice extraction parameters (independent variables). Consequently, in view of the range of variables investigated, the chosen models have the adequacy to predict the extraction efficiency and extraction capacity for fruit juice using the developed machine. In conclusion the developed fruit juice extraction machine serves as a viable option for the small scale fruit juice processors.