Design, fabrication and evaluation of a durability testing drum

Abstract

Products of densification continue to gain importance in the daily activities due to certain advantages such as reduced cost of logistics, better handling and improved performance with regard to their respective purposes. The durability is a measure of defining the quality of these products thus determining the extent of research and development required to enhance these products. Various methods of determining durability such as the impact tests, tumbling, pneumatics, and high speed dural mechanism have reportedly been utilized. There is sparsity literature on the development of high-speed locally made systems for determining durability of agglomerates. The durability testing apparatus is a locally fabricated device designed as a hybrid of the tumbler and the dural to evaluate agglomerates in a bid to determine their resistance to damages when in dynamic state. The design of this apparatus was carried out putting into consideration various components and fabricated to be used for a wide range of agglomerates. It was evaluated using starch bonded kenaf pellets which was found to have a durability of 98.15–99.72% for trial periods of 60 s per run. The durability testing drum was able to effectively determine the durability of kenaf starch bonded pellets.