Automation of a Manually Operated Coir Dust Briquette Making Machine

Production of coir dust briquettes for export is a rapidly growing industry in Sri Lanka today. Coir dust briquettes are used for horticulture purposes in the western countries. The export of coirdust briquettes which is a relatively new business in Sri Lanka is also extremely profitable. As a consequence more and more industrial organizations are entering the field of coir dust briquette manufacture. Thus, the demand for coir dust briquette manufacturing machines and the price of coir dust in the local market has increased. Most of these machines designed to produce coir dust briquettes are operated manually. In order to meet the rising demand for these briquettes, industrialists prefer to operate these machines round the clock. In addition, automation would increase the productivity of the machine while reducing the labourcost. We believe that there is a significant demand to automate existing manually operated coir dust briquette making machines. The common method of automating these machines is to either use pneumatics or PLC’s with either electrical or pneumatic actuators. In this report we have presented a novel method of implementing an automated system for this application. We have used pairs of gear sectors operated through a magnetic clutch to provide motion of the machine parts in one direction. Motion in the opposite direction is provided by deadweights. The forces exerted by the deadweights are controlled by solenoids. In order to keep the overall cost low, we have used solenoids from automobile starter motors for this purpose. The magnetic clutch used in vehicle air conditioning systems suits our needs ideally. The whole system was controlled by an intelligent control system through a programmable IC. We believe that this design would minimize the total cost of the automated system while maintaining reliability. In addition, we have tried to use devices which are directly operated by the hydraulically operated piston of the coir dust briquette making machine for certain applications. This approach would reduce the complexity and the cost of the whole device while improving its reliability.