Effect of blending speed on efficiency and consistency of a grains drink processing machine

Abstract

The effect of Blending speed on blending efficiency and consistency of drink produced from a Grains drink processing machine was studied. Three grain types of two varieties each for maize (zea mays), soybean (glycine max) and guinea corn (sorghum bicolor) were blended at speeds of 1400 r.p.m, 1300 r.p.m, 1000 r.p.m and 800 r.p.m using vertical- horizontal blade assembly. The drinks from the grains were also extracted by centrifugal separation using the same machine and the blending efficiency and drink consistency were analyzed. The result obtained showed that blending speed of 1400 r. p. m had the highest blending efficiency of 79.48% and consistency of 89.6% on dehulled white maize when blended for 600 seconds while blending speed of 800 r.p.m had the least blending efficiency and consistency of 20.03% and 24.5% respectively on dehulled yellow maize for the same blending time interval of 600 seconds. The development of this machine would solve the on-demand of automated production of grain drinks in the food industry.