Design and set up of a pulverized panela machine

Abstract

The panela is a food well known in the world for its benefits to humans since provides energy necessary and essential nutrients for the development of the body's metabolic processes. This is obtained from sugar cane, and a substance-free ingredient that can affect health. While, in culinary and gastronomic arts sector is used as a sweetener.  The process of obtaining the panela is developed by successive and prolonged boiling, which causes moisture loss and then concentrates and forms a tiny mass that when cooled solidifies into blocks. The research work carried out focuses on the static and dynamic analysis of the designed parts that allow various processes (whipped, sifted, and dried)  for large-scale panela production, analyzes the behavior under different loads (mechanical stress, displacement, and thermal study) based on Finite Element Analysis (FEA) using  SolidWorks and Comsol Multiphysics software. Clearly, is important to mention that an appropriate size for the mesh was considered along with Von Mises criteria to be compared with the elastic limit of the selected material for the definition of the final prototype which was designed following the Pahl and Beitz design methodology respectively. A modal analysis of the panela pulverized machine was performed to verify natural process frequencies and vibration modes. Also, a friendly HMI interface for the user was implemented considering the characterization of the users (workers, farmers) and the nature of the process (artisanal).The start-up of the panela pulverizing machine showed a dependence on the consistency and origin of the molasses, depending on this the capacity and size of the pulverized panela.