Abstract:
The objective of this project was the design and fabrication of fiber extracting machine
(decorticator) to extract high quality banana fibers from banana pseudostems. Advantage of use of
this machine over traditional fiber extraction techniques is that the fiber extraction process
becomes less time consuming and labor intensive. Extracted fiber output is increased and they are
of higher quality. For every cycle of banana fruit production, four times greater biomass waste is
produced as compared to banana fruit yield. About half of this waste accounts for pseudostems
which can be used to extract fibers and the solid waste can be utilized as bio-fertilizer for next
banana plantations. The machine proposed consists of rotating cutting drum with several blades
mounted on it which will provide the crushing, beating and pulling operation on the pseudostem
when it is fed to the machine through the feed rollers. The fibers and waste residual material are
collected separately. After validation of design through Ansys analysis, the machine was
fabricated. The testing of machine resulted in good fiber extraction efficiency
