Hand operated cassava chipping machine 

The cassava chipping machine is an economic alternative to manual slicing of cassava tubers. It reduces the tedium associated with manual slicing as well as increases the average output per hour. Rapid spoilage of cassava tuber poses  immense difficulty in its marketing and utilization. To avoid heavy post-harvest losses, the roots are customarily processed into sun dried chips. Cassava chips are used for preparation of flour which is consumed in the same manner as rice flour.  It also forms a major component in many animal feeds.  In industry it serves as a raw material for manufacturing starch, dextrin, glucose and ethyl alcohol. Machine chipping is highly economical where labour charges are higher or when family labour cannot be employed. Other advantages of this machine are moderate initial cost, accommodating all sizes of tubers, easy to operate requiring no special skill, production of uniform chips and adjustable chip thickness.
The machine consists of two concentric mild steel drums, the annular space between which is divided into compartments for feeding the tubers, supported on four m.s. legs.  A rotating disc at the bottom of the drum carries the knives assembly.  A pair of H.S.S. bevel gears is provided to operate the machine manually with a crank arm.  Tubers are fed into the compartments from the top and the chips are collected at the bottom.Output capacity of the machine is 40 to 120 kg/h, depending on chip thickness adjusted which is 2 to 5 times higher than the traditional method of manual slicing (24 kg/h).