Design and Development of Semi-Automatic Cocoa Pod Splitting Machine

The aim of this paper is to develop an alternative solution for conventional method for cocoa pod splitting. The cocoa pod splitting machine is the new innovative and effective concept mainly used for agricultural and industrial field to promote use of mechanical and automatic parts in field machines. Nowadays, humans are employed for cutting the cocoa pod in harvesting area and in some other places. It may be the difficult task for them as they should keep everything in regular manner while cutting and it takes long time in doing this work. In order to reduce the human effort we came up with this idea. The major components of the machine include a frame, cylinder, conveyer, sensor and rope. The knives which do the splitting are actuated by simple hydraulic mechanisms devoid any major stresses, forces or moments acting on them. These mechanisms are powered by simple low - powered positive displacement or hydrostatic hydraulic pumps for power. The machine can be assembled and quickly, and, therefore can be owned patronized by a group of cocoa farmers who can easily bear the low cost of maintenance of the already relative cheap machine.