Effects of variations in speed and cutting blade projection on performance and conformity of slice thickness to the adjustment of the cutting blade projection of motorised cassava slicer

Abstract

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is classified as a woody perennial and branched shrub that belongs to the family of the starch-producing crops, and its growth height ranges from 1 to 5 m. Cassava is fraught with challenges such as easy deterioration of the tubers just few days after harvest. With this, one of the ways of overcoming the challenges is to slice the tubers, which will allow for easy and faster drying to increase its shelf life. Mechanical slicer has been used to perform this operation as manual slicing tend to be tedious and time consuming. However, there is scarce information regarding the performance of mechanical slicers based on combination of speed and cutting blade projection to work against different cassava varieties. In this study a 7×2×3 factorial arrangement in Randomised Complete Block design with four replications was used to evaluate the slicer. This was employed in order to help to determine the impact of speed and cutting blade projection, and different cassava varieties on mechanical slicer in the bulging cassava processing industries. The study found out that the 370 rpm × 5 mm cutting blade projection interaction had the higher mechanical efficiency, chipping efficiency, and quality performance. The 5 mm cutting blade projection produced slices that their thickness conformed to the adjustment.