Design, and Construction of Power-Operated Garlic (Allium Sativum L.) Bulbs Breaker for Ethiopian Garlic

Abstract

Garlic bulb breaking is the unit operation through which cloves are separated to facilitate additional processing. This research work was carried out to design, and manufacture a prototype garlic bulb breaker for a Holeta local garlic variety grown in Ethiopia. The machine consisted of a feed hopper, a garlic separator (two rollers), a fan, outlets for cloves and trash (husk, root, and stem), the main frame, and a drive system. These components and machine assembling were designed using Solidworks software (Version S 2019). The economics of the constructed garlic bulb-breaker such as material and fabrication costs and cost of operation were evaluated with results of 9264.8 ETB and 76.89 ETB/hr, respectively. The cost saved by constructing a garlic bulb breaker over manual garlic bulb breaking by the labor force for planting and processing purposes was 83.42 and 86.63%, respectively. Therefore, the machine could be designed, and constructed for the best cost saved by constructing a garlic bulb breaker over manual garlic bulb breaking.