ISSN 0511-5728
The West Indian Journal of Engineering
Vol.37, No.1, July/August 2014, pp.23-28
Abstract: A process machine for milling and pulverising animal bone into bonemeal was developed. The machine consists
of a hopper, a milling chamber with hammers assembly, a pulverising chamber with two abrasive surfaces, a screw feeder,
belts and pulleys, hammer mill-shaft, pulveriser shaft as well as an electric motor for power transmission. The design
concept integrated the milling and pulverising of animal bones into one machine. Animal bones are milled to a maximum size
of about 12mm in the milling unit and then delivered through an auger to the pulverising unit. As one of the two abrasive
surfaces of the pulverising unit rotates against the stationary surface, the milled bones are fed between them by the screw
feeder through the center of the stationary abrasive disc which is mounted concentrically with an identical high speed
rotating abrasive disc. The design calculations were done using existing machine design theories to obtain relevant design
parameters of the components for the machine. Based on the calculated design parameters the machine was fabricated.
Materials were selected primarily based on strength, availability and economy. Initial performance evaluation of the
machine showed good results, although there is room for improvement. The machine pulverises raw and cooked bone at an
average rate of 4.68 g/s.
Keywords: Development, Evaluation, Bone, Milling, Pulverising, Machine
determined by the size of holes in the sieve used. The pulveriser towards achieving animal bone pulverisation.
second stage is the pulverising of the small sized bone
pieces into powdery form (FAO, 2012). A bone mill is a 2. Materials and Methods
piece of equipment that can be used to break bone into
The study involved the identification of the essential
small pieces. Typical bone milling machines could be
design considerations. This was followed by the
developed by employing hammers for crushing bones.
conceptual and detailed design of the machine using
Thus, this machine can be regarded as hammer milling
existing design theories. The machine was then
machine. To convert the bone into powder in the second
fabricated and evaluated.
stage, a bone pulverising machine in the form of a burr
mill is used. The burr mill consists essentially of two
2.1 Design Consideration
roughened/abrasive plates - one is stationary while the
other is rotating. With faster feed and filled flutes, both The following design considerations were taken into
shearing and crushing can take place. Overfeeding account during the design stage to ensure an efficient
reduces the effectiveness of the pulveriser and excessive and effective bone milling cum pulverising machine;
heating results. The plates could be designed for a i) The machine should consist of two basic operational
variety of pulverising operations and are usually made of units: milling unit and pulverising unit powered by the
cast iron (Handerson and Perry, 1980). same electric motor to optimise the cost of production.
Modern size reduction equipment (i.e. Hammer mill ii) The machine is to mill bone as the hardest
and Pulveriser) was designed and manufactured to serve materials. Bone has a milling/ shearing force of 6.45 N
a singular function (Kakahy et al., 2001; Nasir 2005; at 2-4% moisture content (Adesola et al., 2002).
Nwaigwe et al., 2012; Sanni et. al., 2008; Aderemi et al., iii) The hammers are to be attached to hanger rods
2009). They either crush bulk material to grain permanently, but separately fixed and freely swinging
(Hammer mills) or pulverise grain to powder with a rotating speed of between 1,400 and 4,000 rpm
(Pulverisers). Table 1 provides features of some of these (Handerson and Perry, 1980)
two separate machines. No single one machine can be iv) The maximum size of bone pieces supplied by the
utilised to completely process bone to powder form. hammer mill to the Pulverising unit is 12mm.
With these two separate machines, achieving the v) All static and dynamic stresses resulting from direct
powdery form of bone takes more time and involves loading, bending and torsion were considered in the
more cost. This study details the design and shaft’s design.
development of a machine, herein named bone milling vi) To facilitate the construction of the machine, a
cum pulverising machine, which could mill and prototype that is suitable for small-scale enterprise
pulverise animal bones in one setup. The machine would be adequate. Hence, the targeted capacity of the
integrates the functionalities of the hammer mill and machine was 18 kg/hr.
and Gupta (2009): The pulverising chamber design depended largely on the
pulverising discs. The chamber was sized to
d= (3) accommodate the pulverising disc arrangement and the
crushed bone to be pulverised. The diameter and length
Where, d is the diameter of the shaft, m; SS is the of the pulverising chamber was therefore estimated at
allowable shear stress, N/m2; Kb is the combined shock and 274 mm and 67 mm, respectively.
fatigue factor applied to bending moment; Mb is the bending
moment, Nm; Kt is the combined shock and fatigue factor
applied to torsional moment; and Mt is the torsional moment, 3. General Description of the Bone-Milling cum
Nm. Pulverising Machine
The machine consists of a milling unit and a pulverising
2.2.5 Hammer Mill Sieve unit integrated together to mill and pulverise animal
Since the milling unit is expected to deliver crushed bone in a single operation. The electric motor is
bones with maximum size of 12 mm to the pulverising connected to a power supply via a switch and it drives
unit, the sieve was made with mild steel plate with both the milling and the pulverising units by transmitting
perforations of 12 mm drilled holes. motion through a V-belts and pulley arrangement. The
cylindrical shaped milling chamber was designed to
2.2.6 Pulverising Unit Power Requirement close completely when loaded, so as to prevent crushed
bone from being thrown out, thus causing accidents or
The power required to drive the pulverising unit was
loss of raw material. By the rotation of the hammer
estimated in a similar manner with that of the milling
assembly within the milling unit, the hammers strike the
unit and this was found to be 3 Hp. Hence the same
loaded bones repeatedly, thereby breaking them.
electric motor of 6.8 Hp that was selected to drive the
The milled bone goes directly to the pulverising unit
functional elements of the milling unit was utilised to
through the outlet under the milling chamber after
drive the pulverising unit.
passing through a 12 mm sieve. An auger built as part of
the pulverising unit receives the milled bones from the
2.2.7 Feed Auger
milling chamber and moves them to the pulverising
The feed auger was designed to have a semi- chamber. The pulverising chamber is also cylindrical in
cylindrically shape. After due consideration of the shape. It houses the pulverising discs, with discharge at
weight and size of the crushed bone from the milling the lower end. The two pulverising discs pulverise bone
chamber that is expected to flow into the feed auger between their two roughened surfaces to produce
which conveys it to the pulverising unit, the diameter powdery bone particles. The pulverising chamber lets
and length of the auger were estimated at 100 mm and out pulverised bone by gravity, via a box shaped
115 mm, respectively. Also, the diameter and length of discharge channel attached to its lower end.
the auger shaft were estimated at 40 mm and 115 mm,
respectively. 4. Performance Evaluation
In order to evaluate the performance of the developed
2.2.8 Determination of Shaft Diameter
bone milling cum pulverising machine, it was test run to
The diameter of the shaft used in the pulverising unit pulverise six (6) samples each of cooked and uncooked
was also calculated as 40 mm using equation 3. bone material. A total of twelve samples was milled and
pulverised using the machine. Six of the samples
2.2.9 Pulverising Discs weighed 100 g each while the other six weighed 200 g
The normal force required for each disc to pulverise the each. The test was made randomly with cooked bone and
crushed bones was set at 6.45 N (the breaking force for uncooked bone material samples. In each case, the
bone). Two pulverising discs having internal diameter, weight of the input and output, along with the time taken
external diameter and thickness of 100 mm, 240 mm and for the machine to complete its operations were
15 mm respectively were selected using Equation 4 recorded.
which was given in Khumi and Gupta (2009) as follows: The machine efficiency in respect of each sample
processed was calculated using Equation 5.The average
Tr = (4)
for sample type with similar weight was determined.
Where Tr is the frictional torque; µ is the coefficient of Similarly, the mass flow rate for each processed samples
friction of the friction surface; N is the axial force with which
was calculated using Equation 6 and the average for
the pulverising discs are held together: r1 and r2 are the external sample types with similar weight was determined.
and internal radi, respectively, of the friction surface.
ηµ = x 100 (5)
2.2.10 Pulverising chamber
m= (6)
Where ηµ is the efficiency and m is the mass flow rate particle sizes. The 1,500g sample was taken from
The product (i.e. pulverised bone) obtained from the pulverised bones processed from 2,000g cooked or
machine during test was sieved to examine their particle uncooked bones while the 750 g sample was taken from
size. Sieves of 1,700 µm, 600 µm, 500 µm, 425 µm, 212 pulverised bones processed from 1,000g cooked or
µm and 150 µm were used to separate 1,500 g and 750 g uncooked bones. Table 2 shows the evaluation of
samples of pulverised bone, processed from both cooked performance of the machine.
and uncooked bones, into the appropriate and respective
5. Results and Discussion Table 3. Mass and percentage by mass of particle sizes of 1,500 g
Generally, the machine ran smoothly during the test and of pulverised bone taken from the ones processed from 2,000 g
there was no bone flying around. Table 2 shows that less cooked bone samples
material input gives high efficiency in respect of Particle size µm Mass Retained (g) % Mass retained
machine output but gave low mass flow rate and vice- Oversize 240.7 16.05
1,700 762.4 50.85
versa. For each of the processed samples, the efficiency
600 93.9 6.26
of the machine in respect of the output is in most cases 500 168.8 11.26
above 75 % and above 70 % in all the cases. On average, 425 213.8 14.26
the output efficiency of the machine was 81.14 %, which 212 15.9 1.06
could be regarded as generally very good. The average 150 3.9 0.26
mass flow rate of the processed sample is 4.68 g/s which
gives an hourly flow rate of 16.85 kg/h.
Tables 3-6 show that the pulverised bone had the Table 4. Mass and percentage by mass of particle sizes of 750 g of
highest percentage by mass of 1,700 µm particle size pulverised bone taken from the ones processed from 1,000 g
except for when it was processed from 2,000 g uncooked cooked bone samples
bone samples in which case the oversized particles have Particle size µm Mass Retained (g) % Mass retained
higher percentage by mass. The oversized particles Oversize 63.23 8.43
1,700 249.98 33.34
consist of pulverised bone with various particle sizes 600 89.03 11.87
greater than 1,700 µm. Irrespective of the samples 500 111.26 14.84
(cooked or uncooked) from which the pulverised bone 425 119.01 15.87
were processed, the 1,700 µm particle size occurred in a 212 60.95 8.13
higher percentage than all other particle sizes smaller 150 56.42 7.52
than it. The percentage by mass of the oversized
particles is relatively high in pulverised bone processed
from 2,000 g cooked bone and uncooked bone samples. Table 5. Mass and percentage by mass of particle sizes of 1,500 g
The implication of this is that more of the bones supplied of pulverised bone taken from the ones processed from 2,000 g
uncooked bone samples
to the machine were processed to 1,700 µm particle size
and below when the weight of the input is 1,000 g Particle size µm Mass Retained (g) % Mass retained
Oversize 607.51 40.59
compared to when it was 2,000 g. 1,700 471.46 31.5
Results show that the machine efficiency is higher 600 136.2 9.1
when the weight of input is 1,000 g compared to when 500 92.8 6.2
the weight of input was 2,000 g (see Table 2). However 425 94.29 6.3
the mass flow rate is higher when the weight of input is 212 61.66 4.12
150 32.78 2.19
2,000g.
Table 6 Mass and percentage by mass of particle sizes of 750 g of (pulveriser) for sweet potato harvester: A review”, Proceedings
pulverised bone taken from the ones processed from 1,000 g of the 1st International Conference on Mechanical Engineering
uncooked bone samples Research, IOP Publishing, IOP Conference Series: Materials
Particle size µm Mass Retained (g) % Mass retained Science and Engineering, Vol.36, pp.1-7.
Oversize 24.18 3.23 Khurmi, R.S. and Gupta, J.K. (2009), A Textbook of Machine
1,700 348.25 46.52 Design, 14th Edition, Eurasia publishing house, p.17-18, 740.
600 60.94 8.14 MIWAS (n.d.), “The history of grinding implements for the
500 118.28 15.8 domestic use in Japan”, Available from
425 161.02 21.51 http://bigai.world.coocan.jp/msand/miwa/e implement.html,
212 26.2 3.5 <Accessed 3 July 2011>.
150 9.73 1.3 Nasir, A. (2005), “Development and testing of a hammer Mill”,
Assumption University Journal of Technology, Vol.8, No.3,
pp.124-130.
Nwaigwe, K.N., Nzediegwu, C. and Ugwuoke P.E. (2012),
The reason for these results may be because as more “Design, construction and performance evaluation of a modified
bones were supplied to the machine for processing in cassava milling machine”, Research Journal of Applied
one pass, the space necessary to allow improved Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Vol.4, No.18, pp.3354-
hammering and subsequent grinding of the bone got 3362.
Ogedengbe, T.I. and Aderoba, A.A. (2002), “A computerised
reduced thereby the output efficiency as well as the approach to design of mechanical power transmission shafts”,
probability of obtaining pulverised bone with smaller Nigerian Journal of Engineering Research and Developments,
particle sizes is reduced. However, the high input Vol.1, No.4, pp.36-46.
increases the movement of materials through processes Sanni, L.A., Ogunsina, B.S. and Oladigbo, C. (2008),
under gravity to increase the mass flow rate. “Development of rotary pulveriser for cassava cake in gari
production”, Journal of Food Processing Engineering, Vol.31,
No.6, pp.783 – 797.
6. Conclusions Xuan, C., Cao, L., Wu, P., Ma, Y. and Han, D. (2012),
A bone-milling unit was designed and fabricated “Development on a hammer mill with separate sieving device”,
alongside a bone pulverising unit to achieve a bone TELKOMNIKA Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering,
milling cum pulverising machine. Following design Vol.10, No.6, pp.1151-1156.
calculations and analysis along with adequate machining
operations and fabrication method, the machine was
Authors’ Biographical Notes:
constructed. Evaluation of the developed machine
showed that it is able to perform the desired function of Tunde I. Ogedengbe is Lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering
milling and pulverising cooked and uncooked bone to Department of The Federal University of Technology, Akure,
Nigeria. He received his Bachelor and Master of Engineering
powder. This will save the cost of production through degrees in Mechanical Engineering from The Federal University
combining two machines in one, thereby enhancing of Technology, Akure, Nigeria in 1998 and 2003, respectively. He
productivity through the reduction of the time for obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at The University of
material handling. Manchester, United Kingdom in 2010. His research interests are
in precision machine design, dimensional metrology and
inspection, precision engineering and automation of engineering
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