Manufacturing and performance evaluation of a simple unit for roselle petal separation

Abstract EN

A simple unit was manufactured for separating Roselle petal distinguished of high
productivity, simple design and low damage.

The performance of the manufactured unit was studied
under three Roselle varieties dark Roselle, light Roselle and white Roselle, four cutting petal pipe
diameters 17, 19, 20 and 22 mm and four different span time between harvesting and petal separation
[first day corresponded to moisture contents of 81, 83 and 84% , second day (corresponded to moisture
contents of 75, 78 and 83% ), third day corresponded to moisture contents of 71, 74 and 80% ) and
fourth day (corresponded to moisture contents of 69, 71.5and 75% )] for dark, light and white Roselle,
respectively.

The machine performance was evaluated in terms of unit productivity, petal damage,
separation efficiency, required power, specific energy and separating cost.

The experimental results
revealed that harvesting losses as well as separating costs were minimum while separating efficiency
was maximum under the following conditions: adjust cutting petal pipe diameters at 19 mm for dark
Roselle, 20 mm for light Roselle and 17 mm for white Roselle.

Operate the manufactured unit at the
first day at moisture contents of 81% for dark Roselle, 83% for light Roselle and 84% for white
Roselle.