Comparative exploration of mechanized systems for palm broom production

Performance and economic capabilities of two distinct mechanized systems for processing brooms from coconut and oil palm leaflets were surveyed in this study to determine the best technology to advance/adopt for commercialization. The systems are abrasive roller and knife edge aided peeling based machines while peeling efficiency, processing time/throughput, payback period and benefit cost ratio constitute the parameters weighed. Results revealed the knife edge based peeling systems as most viable even though the abrasion process based system performs with high throughput. This because it's peeling efficiency of 96% is above the minimum acceptable rate of 95% and that of the abrasion process system (94%) is less. This, implies 5% scraps/reworks associated with abrasive aided peeling system which amount to post peeling operation of sorting. The high cost of production induced by this post peeling operation is obvious from the high payback period and low benefit cost ratio of this system compared the knife edged aided process. The payback and benefit cost rating of knife edge aided system amounts to 0.8 and 2.45 respectively while 1.69 and 1.76 constitutes the respective ratings of abrasion process based machines. In addition, the knife edge aided processing system peels both fresh and dry palm leaflets while the abrasion peeling system handles dry leaflets only. Hence, adoption of knife edge aided peeling process is recommended for advancing broom production from palm leaflets.