II. RELATED WORKS:
There are few Areca nut peeling machines are available in the market. These machines are further classified into:
Manually operated machines: These machines are either hand operated or pedal operated.
Fully automated machines: These machines are operated by electric motor and other source of energies.
The below machine in Fig.4 consists of a mainframe on which a rotary shelling drum having 8 numbers of solid rubbers on its periphery is mounted. Below this, a concave is placed to aid shelling and to pass the Dehusked material down. After Dehusking kernels and husk flow to the duct and reach the air stream, produced by a blower. The husk is thrown out and the kernels/nuts are collected at the bottom. Depending upon the size of fruits, the concave has to be changed for higher efficiency and minimum breakage. Grading the dried fruits before Dehusking will also help to increase the Dehusking efficiency and reduce the breakage. 1 hp electric motor is required to run this machine. Its production capacity is 30 kg per hour. The cost of this unit is Rs. 25 000.