Design and Development of a Petrol-powered Hammer mill for rural Nigerian Farmers.

A conventional hammer mill is a device consisting of a rotating head with free- swinging hammers, which reduce rock, grains or similarly hard objects to a predetermined size through a perforated screen, hammer mills can be used for grinding grain into fine flour or into coarse meal for animal feed production. This project is focused on the design, development, and testing of a hammer mill that has a small scale production capability. The conceptual design was based on the principle of design by analysis. The methodology adopted was to examine the most critical defects of conventional hammer mills and provide solutions. The major components of the new hammer mill are Inlet tray, Throat, Magnetic chamber, Rotor, Crushing chamber, Hammer mill body, Hammers/Beaters, Screen, Bearings, Discharge, Table or stand, Mechanical drive, Pulleys. The preliminary tests carried out on the new hammer mill confirm that this mill is capable of performing the same function as that of the huge hammer mills used in the industries, as well as the same function as the conventional hammer mill which usually produce coarse, medium and fine particles, thus quality control and monitoring is needed. Keywords: Design, Hammer mill, Grains, Particles