Background

This project is part of the Full Belly Project, a non-profit organization which aims to provide simple ways to make lives better for rural populations in developing countries. FBP is known for its Universal Nut Sheller which was introduced by Jock Brandis. Jock Brandis went to a village in Mali, Africa and saw how the women there spent hours shelling peanuts with their hands. He created the universal peanut sheller that can shell one hundred and twenty five pounds of peanuts per hour compared to the three pounds per hour by hand (The Full Belly Project 2006). Since then the universal nut sheller has been used in many other developing countries like Haiti, Philippines, Uganda, and Zambia (Full Belly Project 2006).

Objective

The objective of this project is to reduce the cost of the current Universal Peanut Sheller. The new peanut sheller will be used in West Africa where there is a limited access to materials.

Criteria

• Cost- The universal peanut sheller should not cost more than the current design. Lower cost is preferable.

• Durability- The Universal Nut Sheller should be able to sustain many hours of daily usage for several years.

• Effectiveness- The Universal Nut Sheller should effectively shell a variety of ground nuts.

• Aesthetics- The Universal Nut Sheller should be aesthetically similar to that of the existing design and not overtly unappealing.

• Safety- The Universal Nut Sheller should be safe to use by an average man, woman or child above the age of 12 years old.

• Ease of Construction- The Universal Nut Sheller should be easy to assemble on site.

• Transportability- The design of the Universal Nut Sheller should be transportable. Ideally, the greater degree of transport is better without compromising other criteria.

Description of The Full Bell

The final solution chosen incorporates two of our alternative solutions. It uses the design of The Full Bell and the concrete mixture from the Rocky Shelling solution. We have kept the name of The Full Bell for our final solution. The Full Bell involves two changes to the original Universal Nut Sheller. The mix of concrete was changed to one-sixth cement, one-third sand, and one-half gravel, and five inches were removed from the stator. In testing, the gravel mix used was stronger than the original concrete mix. We tested small bricks of the gravel mix, the original concrete mix, a mixture of cement with Styrofoam, as well as several different mixtures of adobe. Three separate tests were performed. Each brick was scored with a stiff wire brush for one minute. A twelve ounce weight was dropped from an eighteen inch height onto the bricks. Finally, the bricks were weighted on one side and twisted downward until breaking. In each test the gravel mix used in The Full Bell was more resilient.


Three inches were removed from the top of the sheller and two inches from the bottom. Figure 1 shows the Full Belly Project’s Universal Nut Sheller (left) compared to the Creative Innovation’s “Full Bell” (right).

The top three inches of the original UNS functioned primarily as a hopper. Ideally this can be replaced with any low cost material or container available at construction time. An inexpensive basket, Figure 2, was purchased from a thrift store for our prototype. The basket was then cut to fit over the top of the sheller as shown in Figure 3.


Figure 6.6 The Full Bell complete with basket hopper.

Abstract

Costs

Materials

header 1 header 2 header 3
row 1, cell 1 row 1, cell 2 row 1, cell 3
row 2, cell 1 row 2, cell 2 row 2, cell 3

See this example of a cost table for more on tables.

Possible alternative materials

Tools

Skills needed

Estimated time of construction

Discussion and Next Steps

References

See Help:Footnotes for more.

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