Development and performance evaluation of a garlic peeler

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Engineering
• Food Processing Technology
• Mechanical Design

Background:

• Manual garlic peeling is a labor-intensive, time-consuming, and costly operation in food processing.
• The demand for efficient garlic processing methods is increasing due to its widespread culinary and medicinal uses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a power-operated garlic peeler to mechanize the peeling process.
• To optimize machine parameters for maximum peeling efficiency and minimal damage.
• To determine the economic viability of the developed garlic peeling technology.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a prototype garlic peeler utilizing a cylinder-concave mechanism with a rubber-covered cylinder.
• Measurement of key physical properties of garlic relevant to peeler design.
• Experimental evaluation of the peeler's performance by varying cylinder speed, cylinder-concave clearance, and moisture content.
• Optimization of crop-machine parameters based on peeling efficiency.

Main Results:

• The optimized parameters were a cylinder speed of 36 rpm, a cylinder-concave clearance of 10 mm, and an 8x8 mm mild steel square screen.
• The prototype achieved a peeling efficiency of 86.6%, with a peeled garlic yield of 86.2% and 4.7% damage.
• The machine demonstrated a throughput capacity of 27 kg/h with an energy requirement of 1.15 kW-h, offering significant cost and time savings compared to manual peeling.

Conclusions:

• The developed power-operated garlic peeler is an effective and economical solution for automating the garlic peeling process.
• The optimized design and operating parameters ensure high efficiency and acceptable product quality.
• This technology has the potential to substantially reduce labor costs and processing time in the garlic industry.