A Report on Building a Cucumber Cutter (Coursework Sample)

Project Title:
Team:
Team members
Institution:
Date due:
A Report on Building a Cucumber Cutter
Abstract
There is a need to have power-operated cucumber cutter that is suitable for both small and large scale processing that is developed and designed based on the engineering properties of Cucumber varieties. The varieties in question include Persian cucumber (large) and Kirby cucumbers (small in size. The cucumber cutter is made of a cutter, feeder for round slicing, support mechanism, power transmitter, and various frames. The power operated cucumber cutter has several blades to cut the cucumber and is expected to operate at a speed of 360RPM. The cucumber cutter was built to prevent the drawbacks present in power or hand operated power-rotated cutters in order to meet the demand of cucumber small or large scale processing. The cucumber cutter developed has an efficiency of around 94-96 percent and an effective capability of 100kg per hour for various varieties of cucumber. Consequently, the machine has a mean thickness of cucumber cut of 1.5 plus or minus 0.185 mm and an average roundness of around 0.58, again depending on the varieties.
Table of content
Contents
 TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566076"Table of content  PAGEREF _Toc405566076 \h
3
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566077"Introduction  PAGEREF _Toc405566077 \h
4
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566078"1.1 Problem Statement  PAGEREF _Toc405566078 \h
4
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566079"1.2 Project justification  PAGEREF _Toc405566079 \h
5
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566080"1.3 Objectives  PAGEREF _Toc405566080 \h
5
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566081"1.4 Scope of study  PAGEREF _Toc405566081 \h
6
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566082"1.4.1 Literature review  PAGEREF _Toc405566082 \h
6
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566083"1.4.2 Design  PAGEREF _Toc405566083 \h
7
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566084"Material and methods  PAGEREF _Toc405566084 \h
9
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566085"Material requirements and assembling  PAGEREF _Toc405566085 \h
9
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566086"a) Principal components  PAGEREF _Toc405566086 \h
9
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566087"b) Vex parts  PAGEREF _Toc405566087 \h
9
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566088"Assembling  PAGEREF _Toc405566088 \h
10
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566089"i) Cutter assembly  PAGEREF _Toc405566089 \h
10
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566090"ii) Power transmission assembly  PAGEREF _Toc405566090 \h
11
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566091"iii) Cutter Frame  PAGEREF _Toc405566091 \h
11
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566092"iv) The cutter base  PAGEREF _Toc405566092 \h
12
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566093"Performance evaluation of the cucumber cutter machine  PAGEREF _Toc405566093 \h
12
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566094"Results and discussion  PAGEREF _Toc405566094 \h
12
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566095"Conclusion  PAGEREF _Toc405566095 \h
13
HYPERLINK \l "_Toc405566096"Bibliography  PAGEREF _Toc405566096 \h
14

Introduction
There is significant agricultural production in vast quantities of sweet pepper, tomatoes, and cucumbers especially in greenhouses. For example, Netherland has a total area of 3,000 ha for production of vegetables. As a result, the production of fresh cucumber has increased drastically throughout the world over the last decades (Ramesh et al., 2000). Consequently, both small and large producers are in need of a mechanized cucumber cutter that will increase their productivity and income. Additionally, the cucumber cutter is meant to reduce the cost of production and settle the problems that come with foreign workers. Consequently, the new cucumber cutter was specially designed and developed. The cucumber cutter comprised of three specific criterions: low cost, easy to fabricate, and of light weight.
1.1 Problem Statement
It is expensive to cut and harvest the cucumbers manually. As a result, by using the cucumber cutter design and specific fabricate the cutter, the whole problem of cutting cucumbers was solved using a natural mean. As a consequence, the development of the cucumber cutter involved several concepts such as sketching, modeling, fabrication, and design of the prototype while using the correct materials and testing functioning of the cutter machine. As a result, the objective of the project was, therefore, to design, development, and fabricate cucumber cutter prototype that it motorized to cut cucumbers harvested.
On the other hand, the production of cucumbers involves enormous costs that are spent on wages used in employees used in processing. Consequently, the cucumber cutter developed was aimed at improving the overall production efficiency, reduce the amount of human labor and improve their effectiveness that is a core issue in today's world. In addition, manual labor in cucumber cutting is demanding, especially in areas affected by low climatic conditions.
1.2 Project justification
In the process of cucumber cutting and processing, the process is not prestigious when done manually; earnings seem to below. Additionally, it is very difficult to obtain enough staffs to carry out the processing of cucumbers. Consequently, many researchers are focused on cucumber cutting automation since cucumber processing involves tedious and repetitive activities in crop production; especially in horticulture production. The power automated cucumber cutter is very crucial and will help improve cucumber processing at reduced costs.
1.3 Objectives
The primary objective of building a cucumber cutter is to come up with a design and fabricate machine that can be used to aid mechanically in harvesting and cutting of cucumbers. Additionally, the project is aimed at reducing the high costs in cucumber processing; the new cucumber cutter machine will reduce the high production cost which is currently RM1500 in a single unit. Additionally, the machine will make cucumber processing flexible and less laborious. Consequently, the general objective is to develop a cucumber cutter that is mechanical low in cost below RM1500, with a high processing speed of 360 RPM, and meets the demands of the production units. The general objectives were:
To develop a prototype of cucumber cutter to aid in cucumber harvesting and processing.
To fabricate the cucumber cutter prototype to motorized cutter for cutting cucumbers.
1.4 Scope of study
1.4.1 Literature review
The project makes use of various reviews that concerns other researchers relevant to the topic. According to Ernst et al (1996), there are various versions of cutters developed in the recent past; however, before the development of cutting machines, curved sickles were used in conjunction with a vibrating design mechanism to aid in its cutting. However, the first implementation was used in cutting palms to save on labor costs and to speed up the process of harvesting (Ramesh et al., 2000).
Ernst et al (1996) affirms that the machines developed were not motored and used composite poles that were lighter than aluminum poles. In addition, according to researchers, an excellent cutter needs to be of light weight, and with a stiff pole to enhance an easy handling. Additionally, the cutter needs to be easily controlled especially when dealing with small or very huge sizes of farm products. On the other hand, Lu & Tcheng (2009) affirm that motored cutters that exceed 10kgs are heavier and might be more difficult to use and move where necessary. Additionally, a number of researchers conclude that flexibility of the pole that is too much flexible make the handling of the machine difficult.
On the other hand, Yusuf (2012) tried to develop a motored machine to peel apples. In his criterion, he developed a mechanical cutter that was easy to handle, efficient and saved on time; however, the machine failed to cut down the costs of production. According to Gordon et al (2005), it is required that any cutting machine designed and developed to improve productivity, minimize fatigue to the employees, and ease the cutting process. Consequently, various efforts have been employed in expanding various cutting machines; however, the manual process of cutting agricultural produce still remain as the most reliable and effective way of cutting. For example, curved singles are still in use in some parts of the world during the harvesting, cutting and processing of some products.
According to Warmiński et al (2003), vibrating mechanism can be used in achieving the cutting process of cucumber motored cutter. The vibration action of the machine is transferred to its vertical arrangement so that the cutting is done vertically. As a result, the design and development of the cucumber cutter selected a vibrating mechanism that uses a high speed in the longitudinal axis to aid in the cutting (Ramesh et al., 2000). Consequently, the motored cucumber cutter adopted an oscillating mechanism using a single pair of bevel gears to enhance the fast vibration of the cutter. To oscillating mechanism enhance vibration speed of around 360 RPM per minute (Lu & Tcheng, 2009).
1.4.2 Design
The design was developed to suit the prototype of a motorized cucumber cutter while using the criterion of low cost and to enhance efficiency: The following was the design employed in the design:


Figure 1: The paperwork of the prototype designed and developed
The cucumber cutter which is the power generated was designed in line with the demands of large and small scale cucumber producers. The design was undertaken with a specific consideration of cucumber size; that is cucumber thickness and the longitudinal length. The objective of the design was to minimize the drawbacks in the existing manual cucumber cutters. Before designing, data and cam analysis was carried out, and the cam layout was as f...