Development of an Engine Powered Horizontal Dough Mixing Machine

Abstract

A horizontal dough mixing machine was designed, fabricated, and tested. This concept was developed with the sole aim of solving the problem of machine halts due to frequent power outages experienced by electricity-powered mixers, the high cost of available conventional mixers, and the drudgery of manual mixing encountered by rural bakers. The machine consists of the hopper, stirring arm, pulley, and frame, and it is powered by a 1500-rpm, 9-hp petrol engine. The machine was tested to ascertain its performance using four portions of flour. The results showed that the machine has the highest capacity of 1600kg working at 8 hours per day using 10kg of flour at the highest speed of 400 rpm, a mixing efficiency of 87%, and a fine dough texture. It is ascertained that the machine performs as efficiently as conventional ones, and it would aid rural bakers by reducing drudgery and also increasing bakery production hours.