Udupi: Students of SMVITM, Bantakal develop black pepper separator & collector

By B Pundalika Marate
Bellevision Media Network

Udupi, 25 May: The mechanical engineering students oft Shri Madhwa Vadiraja Institute of Technology and Management (SMVITM), Bantakal, near here have developed a prototype of black pepper separator and collector as part of their final year project.

 

The project was carried out by Latish Bhaskar Shetty, Reevan Nelson Lobo, Sagar, Pramod M Amin of 8th semester under the guidance of Lingaraj Ritti, senior assistant professor, department of mechanical engineering.

 

Agriculture is the backbone of our country and it decides an India’s economy. Black pepper is one of the popular agriculture product spices and known as the king of spices. By using technology, the improvement in the productivity and quality of black pepper is accomplished. The black Pepper separator and collector machine is an agriculture related project for facilitating efficient separation of pepper berries from its spikes and dried in sun light to reduces moisture content significantly. There are many problems associated with existing design of pepper separator and collector machine like high cost, low efficiency, low capacity and more processing time.

 

 

To overcome these difficulties, in the present work, the black pepper separator and collector machine is designed and fabricated to perform the desired task. Initially, the black pepper is separated from the spikes by using separator and then collected by using vacuum pressure that draws the pepper seeds inside the vacuum chamber, and in vacuum chamber the pepper seeds are separated from the dust and unwanted particles by using filter. After the separation process, the pepper seeds are spread to dry and to eliminate moisture content in presence of sunlight, again the peppers are collected back for further process. The process of separation and collection of black pepper is automated by using Bluetooth module with smart phone.

 

The KSCST, Bengaluru has provided the sponsorship for this innovative project. The management, principal Dr Thirumaleshwara Bhat, HoD of mechanical engineering Dr Sudarshan Rao K and project coordinators Dr H Udaya Prasanna and Ganesh Kalagi have appreciated and congratulated the team.