Women friendly pedal operated cashew nut desheller: a machine to alleviate drudgery

Abstract

In small scale cashew processing industries, manually operated deshelling machines are dominant. To minimize the drudgery in cashew nut deshelling operations and to avoid the contact of Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL) on the hands of the operator, the machine was necessary to accomplish cutting and splitting operations in single a stroke. The role of women in cashew nut processing industries is assertive. It was necessary to have the women-friendly cashew nut deshelling machine for reducing the work stress and increasing the work speed. Various dimensions of cashew nut deshelling machine viz., saddle height, crank length, diameter and width of handle were decided based on anthropometric data of women workers. The crank and slotted lever quick return mechanism were designed for cutting and splitting of cashew nuts. The flywheel was designed to store energy in an idle stroke and release during a cutting stroke and thereby smoothing the working. The existing and developed cashew nut deshelling machines were ergonomically evaluated with six female subjects with the various physiological parameters viz. WHR, EER, ΔHR, ODR and BPDS. As the work load with developed cashew nut deshelling machine was in ‘LIGHT’ category, rest pauses were not mandatory. However, some short breaks were permitted to avoid boredom of monotonous work. The deshelling capacity was increased by 24 per cent and deshelling cost was decreased by 22 per cent with the developed machine as compared to that of an existing deshelling machine. T-test statistical analysis showed that there was no significant difference between Working Heart Rate (WHR) where, whole kernel recovery and shelling capacity were found significantly different.