CHAPTER THREE
MATERIALS AND METHOD
This chapter deals with the choice of materials used in the constriction and reasons for selecting such material. It also consist of the description of various component part of the machine and method of carrying out the performance evaluation of the machine.
3.1 Material Selection
The choice of selecting material for the construction of this machine is based on the following criteria such as : Strenght, cost, durability, Size aid weight , Apperance and stability.
i. Strength of Materials: The materials selected for the project are strong, realible and will be able to stand the test of time.
ii. Cost Efffectiveness : The cost of materials used are not too expensive and can easily be afforded by an average farmers.
iii. Durability: The selected materials will give an assurance of long life because the bearing suffers more wears a due to rolling action and this is juxtapose by the use of pilled bearing which resist wears for long period.
iv. Size and Weight: The size of the machine is portable enough to permit transportation from one point to another with the machine still performing the same function.
v. Appearance: The material selected possess a good finishing which when painted give a finishing look.
vi. Stability: The material selected ensured of high stability of the machine which is operate at the required range of duty without vibration.
3.2 Description of the machine
The Forage chopping maching consist of five units, the hopper, the chopping unit, the frame unit, the transmission unit, and the outlet unit.
i. The hopper is the unit through which the harvested green grasses are feed into the machine for size reduction. The hopper was made of 30mm mild steel sheet of rectangular shape and it has a lid that prevents dust spillage.
ii. The chopping unit is the unit through which cutting takes place. It consist of rotating cutter blade, beaters/hammer use to cut the grass into small size.
iii. The frame unit is made up of 700mm length, 500mm breath and 300mm height. It serve as rigid support against vibration during the operation of the machine.
iv. The transmission unit: The power transmission drives used for the machine are belt and pulley.
v. The outlet: The outlet is a point of collection of the processed materials.
