CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Machine design is the creation of new and better machines and improving the existing ones. A new or better machine is one which is more economical in the overall cost of production, operation and maintenance. It is on these background that we came out with a design of a machine, which shall help in solving problems of drying spent grains in our breweries. The major problem facing breweries in the country in how to utilize the spent grains after brewing. Though some breweries use these spent grains as aids by drying and burning them. We hence see this method of recognition as not being economical but wasteful.

There  propelled us to designing a new method of  drying these spent grains to the required moisture content through the use of a SPIN DRYER. When these spent grains are properly dried, it could be a major constituent in the production of  poultry feeds. With this spin dryer, the unemployed masses could gain jobs by fabricating or buying  this machine for drying of spent grains, and recycling it to a useful feed for poultry. It  is worthy  to note that the production of a spin dryer is designed in a way that even the unskilled workers could operate it, in fact, we are designing this project as our quota towards the  eradication of unemployment and poverty, which this present government is wedging war against. Moreover, technology could be bought, borrowed or stolen. Our project is a borrowed technology from the western world, which was primarily used for drying of clothes, but we have expanded this scope to deal favourably with drying of spent grains to the desired moisture content.

1.2    THE PURPOSE OF STUDY

This project is designed and constructed to achieve the following goals:

1.   To design and construct a spin dryer that will recycle brewery waste (spent grains).

2.   To design and construct a machine that can dry rapidly trough spinning.

3.   To design and construct a machine that will have high degree of automatization.

4.   To  design and construct a machine  that will take less drying time.

5.   To design a machine that will be easy in construction but have high efficiency.

6.   To design and construct a machine that will be cheap to operate and maintain.

7.   To design and construct a machine that will require less energy.

8.   To design and construct a machine that could impress on existing design taking into cognisance, areas of need.

1.3    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The importance attached to the design of the spin dryers is to achieve a fast spinning and drying system for drying of spent grains. The machine is design in such a way that it does not require squeezing presses to demoisture the spent grains in the perforated spin tub/basket rather works on the theory  of centrifugal motion where the spent grains are spin in the machine away from the centres of rotation at high  velocity rate, squeezing the water out. This machine is design to remove excess water from spent grains in minutes (it spin almost at a rate of 145orpm) by spinning twice the capacity of a normal dryer. It is designed to have a longer life span and efficient in its operation. It is  driven by a 4kw (5h.p) motor, as the motor is spinning the basket, the moisture content is drain to the drum. The drum encloses the basket which is covered to prevent the moisture content from splashing. Also a mesh is also provided in the spinning tub to prevent escape of spent grains during spinning.