Design and development of oil palm fresh fruit bunches coring machine

Oil palm fresh fruit bunches (FFB) are normally transported to the mill as whole material instead of fruitlets only after being harvested. In the mill, the bunches are sterilized and the fruitlets are stripped mechanically from the stalk. These fruitlets are then processed to provide oil and kernel while the stalk and the empty fruit bunches are brought back to the field for mulching. This system incurs high cost to heat the bunches and oil loss due to absorption by the empty fruit bunches. A new technique has been found whereby all the fruitlets are easily detached from the bunches before sterilization using a chemical compound called ethephon. This compound helps reduce the detachment rate would be faster if it is injected into the fruit bunches instead of brushing the chemical over the cut stalk This paper describes the design and fabrication of a mechanical device that successfully core the stalks to enable the chemical be placed inside. Tests conducted show that the machine performed better than a hand drill and the percentage of bruised fruitlets was about 1%.