NIT-K student team designs machine to produce coconut powder

NIT-K student team designs machine to produce coconut powder

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, May 8, 2012 : A student team of National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NIT-K) has created a coconut shelling machine that can shell coconuts 15 times faster than a human being and has an efficiency of 80 – 85 percent.

The prototype of this machine, which aims at producing coconut powder to serve as a substitute for grated coconut, was demonstrated on the premises of NIT-K recently.

People usually use a simple machine to shell a coconut, but breaking its hard shell without damaging the nut within requires exceptional skill. The machine developed at NIT-K can achieve this by making four cuts in the shell, which breaks when heat is administered to it. The nut is then put through a process called paring, during which its brown outer skin is removed. The final product is the desiccated coconut powder that can be used instead of grated coconut.

The machine has the potential to help small-scale industries. They no longer need to hire skilled laborers; instead, they can use this machine to increase their rate of production.

The machine was designed by a team of students belonging to the Engineers’ Forum for Entrepreneurship Awareness (E-FOREA), an entrepreneurship cell of NIT-K, in collaboration with the College Innovation Centre.

Sharath Chandra Shetty, the MD and founder of Swastika Coco Private Limited, whose industry has to shell around 30,000 coconuts per day to produce desiccated coconut powder, said that the machine will revolutionize the coconut industry. He feels that the machine is still in its initial stages and can be developed further.

It was Mr. Shetty who threw the challenge before the students at Engineer, the annual college fest, last September. A number of teams participated in the project and presented ideas, which were pooled together to create a final idea.

The student team comprises Mohammed Tariq and Prajwal Kumar, both second year mechanical engineering students; Madhusudhan G., a first year chemical engineering student; Madhumitha Shridhara, the head of the project and consulting at E-FOREA; and R. Raghav.

The funds for the project were provided by the Centre for Innovation at NIT-K and a private company.