Testing of Sawdust - Compressed Machine for Mushroom Production

Abstract

This research was to test and evaluate the locally -made (L) and imported (I) sawdust-compressed machines. The L-machine consisted of a steel structure, a 0.5 hp/220 V/1 -phase/ 50 Hz electric motor drive, 35x60x140 cm dimension and weighed 65 kg. The machine only compressed sawdust in a plastic bag primarily packed by hand. The machine could comprss sawdust in the 6.5"x12" plastic bag of 800 g weight at the average density of 0.59 g/cc and packing rate of 4 bags/min. Average compressive force through shaft was 35 kg/bag.
The I-machine of 110 cmx140 cm x 190 cm steel structure was powered by a 2 hp/380 v/3 phase electric motor. the I-machine could compress sawdust in the 6.5"x12" plastic bag of 1,157.7 g weight at the average density of 0.63 g/cc and packing rate of 12.7 bags/min. the average density of manually packing and compressing sawdust in plastic bag was about 0.65 g/cc.