Development of banana pressing machine for enhancing productivity of dried banana processing plants: Case study in Phitsanulok Province, Thailand

Abstract

This research aims to develop the production process in pressing process of rolled dried banana by improving the manual pressing machine in a dried banana community, Phitsanulok Province. Banana pressing machine consists of simultaneous two handles for user safety and reducing fatigue. This pressing machine has a base that supports the weight from each pressing with a metal plate on top to flatten the banana. By comparing pressing a banana with a wooden pressing machine and a developed metal pressing machine, the result from the sample factory shows that it reduced the production cycle time, number of bananas pressing per cycle, improved the pressed banana (flattened banana) and also reduce the time for adjusting pressed bananas. The results showed that using a wooden pressing machine takes 4.2 seconds/ banana, while the developed metal pressing machine takes 10 seconds /4 bananas or an average of 2.5 seconds/banana. It can be decreased 40.5% of cycle time. In addition, a number of pressing bananas per cycle can be reduced from 3 to 1 time, reducing for 66.7. Furthermore, development of this machine can also reduce the user’s fatigue when applying compression and reduces the risk of harms user’s hands during compressing operation.