Abstract:
Growing lotus has been promoted in Thailand particularly in flooded areas where other
plants cannot be grown. Lotus seeds can be processed as OTOP product of the provinces with lotus
planting areas. This research attempted to design and build a prototype lotus seed shell peeling
machine to minimize the time and labor requirement in the fresh lotus seed shell removal.
Traditional lotus seed shell peeling and physical properties of lotus seed were studied for
the prototype designing. This prototype peeler consists of the main frame, cutting blade unit, Scotch
Yoke mechanism, the power transmission unit and a prime mover by 90W-gear-motor. The
operation started with manually feeding lotus seeds into chute at the top of machine. Then they were
conveyed to blade unit to cut lotus peel in diametrical axis by Scotch Yoke mechanism, and finally
seeds were released through outlet chute at the bottom.
The results revealed that the average speed of blade 7 m/min worked well among the
average speed of blades 6, 7 and 8 m/min respectively. The peeling percentage was 79% without
any seed damage with working capacity of 3.6 kg/hour consuming 0.06 kW-hour of energy. An
engineering economic analysis showed that it cost an average of THB 6 per kilogram at 1,440 hours
per year with 23-month payback and 247 hours per year for break-even point. This prototype can
work at least twice as fast as human labor.