Performance Effectiveness of Cassava Flour Processing Machine for Small-Medium Industries

Cassava is one of the favorite foods in Indonesia. Tual and Southeast Maluku Province are the regions with cassava as their staple food since the ancient time, which in local language it is called “embal”. The processing of cassava into traditional foods is still performed manually which in its process includes: peeling, cleaning, slice, and dried with squeezing step to release the water content, and then sieved by using a plaited bamboo sieve. Manual processing is far from economic because it requires plenty of time and energy. This research aims to find out the performance effectiveness of cassava processing machine for small and medium industries. This research used an engineering method by designing the cassava processing machine. This machine has three main parts: 1) Screw conveyor with a 1/2 HP motor with 1430 rpm torque, to reduce the gearbox torque (type 60) with the ratio of 1:50, 2) Grinder, FFC 23 mesh 0.5 type with 3 HP and 2300 rpm motor, 3) Sieve with 3/4 HP and 1430 rpm motor to reduce the gearbox (type 60) torque with a ratio of 1:30. The produced capacity by the cassava processing machine is 30 kg/hour.