Design and Performance Evaluation of a Stone Crusher

Crushers are essential machines in several industries for particle size reduction. They are invaluable in laboratories (higher institutions and research centres), the mining and construction industries. Available crushers are imported and very expensive. This has pushed some workers around Nigeria to crush stones with crude materials and manual labour, to meet the demand of the various sectors while neglecting the hazards involved. A hammer mill has been designed with due considerations to standard design requirements, local content and cost. The power required to crush granite with the desired through put of 400 kg/h was found to be 5.5 kW. Major factors considered for the material selection are the mechanical properties, wear of materials, fabrication requirement and cost. The machine was fabricated using locally available materials. The fabricated stone crusher was tested and the actual capacity was found to be 301 kg/h with a through-put efficiency of 75.4 %. The crushed products were well graded with 1.89 coefficient of gradation and uniformity coefficient of 10.22. The machine was produced at a cost of two hundred and forty-five thousand, two hundred naira (₦245,200.00 {US$595.15}).