Design and Modeling of a Maca Leaf Cutter and Classifier Machine for the Junín Region

Abstract

In the high Andean areas of Junín in Peru, maca (a tuber typical of Peru) and maca flour are produced. At the end of the harvest, farmers have the hard work of removing the root and stalks of the remaining maca. Faced with this problem, the "stalk cutting and maca sorting machine" was designed, a ma-chine proposed when analyzing the difficulty of cleaning the maca after har-vest, then it must be dried and processed. This proposed machine will save time and increase production. In the traditional way (manual), farmers clean 4 kg of maca in 2 to 3 minutes, however, with the proposed machine 6.67 kg of maca will be cleaned in 3 minutes. In addition, a heat treatment will be developed on the copper surface that will have contact with the tuber, for the elimination of bacteria and viruses such as COVID-19.