DESIGN AND FABRICATON OF SOAP PLODDING MACHINE IN RESPONSE TO

HIGH DEMAND OF SOAP AND DETERGENT DURING THE COVID-19 ERA

Muhammed, K. O.1* Woli, T. O.2, Ibrahim, L. A.3, Sam Obu, C. V.4, Dike P. C5, Shuaib,

A A.6 and 7Abdulateef, T.F.

1-7
Mechanical Engineering Department, Federal Polytechnic, Offa
*
Corresponding Author

E-mail address: muhammed.kabeer0416@gmail.com

Phone number:+234(0)8033726184

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ABSTRACT

This project work presents the design and fabrication of soap plodding machine in response

to high demand of soap and detergent during COVID-19 era. The machine is designed for

both small and medium scale soap production with a capacity of 250kg of soap paste per

hour (22 tablets per minute) of 25mmx55mmx95mm dimension. The machine, which is

designed for an area with electricity supply, has a relatively high efficiency and very reliable

as it will greatly reduce the man hour and effort required to produce the soap traditionally

while greatly increasing output production in relatively short time of production. Finally, the

machine, which operates on the principle of extrusion and conservation of mass comprises of

four distinct components namely; power transmission, Noodling section, heating section and

extrusion section which shall be examined in details in various chapters of this project.

Keywords: Plodding, Noodling, Soap paste, Barrel, Tablet

I INTRODUCTION

Soap industries are among the most common industries that have survived or remained in

business over the years. Generally, the marketability of a particular soap greatly depends on

how attractive is the final product (Muntaka, 1987). This is determined by the method by

which the soap is being plodded.

Several modern plodding techniques practiced today in soap making industries involves using

either press or extruder of various designs to accomplish the task of plodding, most of which

can either be manually or electrically operated ( Yakubu, 2004).

The consideration of the above and numerous factors led to the development of this soap

plodder which is based on the principles of conservation of mass, transmission of forces and

motions.

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Formally, soap making has been done traditionally by mixture of the necessary soap

ingredients and boiling it on fire after which it is being poured into various molding

containers and allowed to solidify (Philip and Cleary, 2009). After solidifying, the soaps are

then removed from the moulds manually. This is labour-intensive and leads to breakage of

some of the soaps before they are taken to the market for sale.

The significance of this project work is to as a matter of utmost economic importance

enhance the aesthetic and market value of the product. This will to a great length eliminate if

possible or greatly reduce the production of soaps with rough and unattractive surfaces of

very low market quality and value. Hence, manual labour is eradicated in the final soap

making process and better market value is enhanced.

II MATERIALS AND METHODS

For the purpose of study, soap paste was used for performance evaluation of the machine and

the temperature around the barrel was regulated to overcome the major problem of material

compaction. The design took cognizance of the availability of the raw materials. The stresses

that the system was subjected to were obtained through analytical approach and mathematical

analysis using networks of formulae.

A DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

A soap plodding machine was constructed, powered by a 4 hp three phase electric motor. The

machine is equipped with a barrel which encloses the screw shaft. The barrel is designed to

house the screw shaft with allowance to avoid direct contact with the screw. The allowance is

sufficiently large to avoid contact and small to avoid leakages due to back pressure (Yakubu,

2004). The screw shaft and the barrel are made of stainless steel because of its properties like

high corrosion resistance (Khurmi & Gupta, 2010). The screw shaft conveys the soap paste

from the hopper to the extreme end of the barrel. Attached to the extreme end of the barrel is

a noodler. The noodler is responsible for the conversion of the transported paste into soap

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noodles; the essence of which is to ensure homogeneity and proper mixing. The noodler can

then be replaced with a 25mm by 55mm profile which determines the shape of the soap. As

the soap is extruded through the profile, the heater band attached to the end of the barrel

regulates the temperature of the barrel and this gives the bar soap a fine surface finish.

B DESIGN CRITERIA

1. The machine is designed for both small and medium scale soap production.

2. The machine is designed for an area with availability of electricity.

3. Soap Size as determined from the experiment of two soap specimens as shown below;

= 25mm x 55mm x 95mm

4. The machine is designed to plod 250kg of soaps per hour

mass
since volume=
density

250 3
Volume produced per h our= =0.217 m
1150

0.217
Number of soap tablets produced per h our = −9
=1664
25 × 55× 95 ×10

1664
i .e . =27.7 ≈ 28tablets per minute
60

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 Fig 1: Actual fabricated model of the Soap Plodding Machine

C DESIGN ANALYSIS

The design of soap plodder involves primarily sizing and selection of proper material for

adequate strength, durability, suitability for the job which the machine is meant and the

economy of manufacture.

MATERIAL SELECTION AND PRODUCTION PLANNING

In this work good material selection was undertaken to achieve the following purposes:

convenient maintenance, to reduce the noise of the machinery, to produce the machinery at an

economical cost, to improve and reduce dimensions, to achieve machine aesthetics, to

improve the strength of the machinery, to improve its resistance to wear, corrosion and

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corrosive medium (Sharma and Aggar-Wal, 1998; Chukwulozie et al., 2015). The materials

utilized for the construction of the machines are mild steel, stainless steel, and chemical paint.

SCREW CONVEYOR

Details of screw conveyor design such as helix angle, channel, depth profile and number of

parallel flight contribute to the quantity of soap being plodded (Khurmi & Gupta). The screw

shafts is designed with the pitch equal to the diameter (referred to as square pitched screw)

which results in a helix angle of 17.6 o (Khurmi & Gupta , 2005). They have a deep feed

section to accommodate and convey the soap paste and a finer shallow channel for achieving

thorough mixing. The design of conveyor greatly depends on the flow rate needed at the

profile exit. Screw conveyor of 92mm nominal diameter was adopted (standard) (Euger,

Avallone & Theodore (1997)).

The power of the screw conveyor required for conveying material at a rate of 250 kg/h for the

capacity of a continuous screw conveyors were calculated from the expression given by

(Spivakovsky and Dyachkov, 1967).

π 2
Q=60× λ × × D × L × N ρΨ C
4

π 2
250=60 ×0.25 × ×0.092 ×0.092 × N × 1150×0.3 ×1
4

N=78.99 rpm

Where,

Q = capacity of a screw conveyor

ρ = Bulk density of the material, kg/m3 = 1150kg/m3

D = Nominal diameter of Screw in m = 0.092m

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S = Screw pitch in m

N = RPM of screw

Ψ = Loading efficiency of the screw (0.3)

C = Factor to take into account the inclination of the conveyor = 1

λ = Fill coefficient of the section

GEAR BOX

The gear box consists of various gears covered with casing made of cast iron. The gears are

cut with teeth meshed together to transmit either a fraction of or more than the speed of the

gear system. This is done to compensate for the torque needed to convey the material at high

pressure.

In this project, the speed of the shaft is calculated to be 79rpm for the conveyor screw to

discharge the desired mass flow rate (250kg/hr) as shown in previous calculations.

Also, in this project, the machine was designed such that the velocity ratio of the electric

motor pulley to that of the gear box pulley was 2:1.

To calculate for the speed of the gearbox input shaft,

Let Ns = speed of the screw shaft = 79rpm

Ng= speed of the input shaft (Gear box)

Nm= speed of the motor = 1400 rpm

The gear ratio of the shaft to Gear box adopted was 10:1

Ns 1
= =¿
Ng 10

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N g=10 ×79=790 rpm

VELOCITY RATIO

V-belt has the ability to transmit velocity ratio as high as 10:1 (Joseph and Charles, 2001;

Khurmi and Gupta, 2010) but velocity ratio 2:1 was adopted.

Diameter of t h e driven D N m 1400

V.R = = = = =1.77 :1≈ 2 :1
Diameter of t h e driver d N g 790

D =2d= 2 ×75=150 mm

Fig 2: Gear Box

III PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

For the performance evaluation, soap pastes were collected from local manufacturer.

In the testing of the soap plodding machine, the following are the step by step

procedures followed:

a) The soap plodding machine was connected to the 3-phase power source.

b) The machine’s electric switch was then turned ON and the machine was allowed

to run for 5 minutes.

c) The noodler was then coupled to the outlet of the barrel using the coupler.

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 d) At this point, the already prepared soap paste of about 5kg was then poured into

the hopper.

e) The soap paste was then pressed down with the aid of a wooden pestle to force the

paste into the running screw conveyor.

f) The soap paste which is being conveyed by the screw was then extruded through

the holes in the noodler in the form of noodles into a container.

g) The noodled paste in the container was then sprinkled with fragrance to give the

soap sweeter fragrance.

h) The noodler was then removed and the profile was then coupled to the barrel

outlet using the same coupler.

i) The noodled paste was then poured back into the barrel and the heater band Ws

turned ON and increased gradually until a fine soap surface was obtained at 700C.

j) The plodding process was then timed using a stop watch for two minute and the

plodded soap was collected on a flat horizontal sheet metal plate with the cutting

done manually.

k) Finally, the plodded soap total length was then measured for the duration of the

test operation.

l) The heater band was then turned OFF and the machine switched OFF.

TEST RESULT

Test specifications:

Soap tablet size =25mmx55mmx95mm

Mass of soap paste used = 7kg

Input (soap paste)(kg) Output (soap bar length) (mm) Duration (minute)

7.0 4210 2.0

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2105mm of soaps were plodded in one minute. This implies that the length of soap plodded

per hour

¿ 60 ×2105=126300 mm=126.3 m

volume plodded per h our =cross sectional area ×lengt h produced per h our

−6
¿ 25 ×55 ×126.3 × 10

3
m
¿ 0.1736625
hr

Since mass=density × volume

kg
Therefore, mass=1150× 0.1736625=199.71
hr

199.71
Performance efficiency (η pf )= ×100 %
250

Performance efficiency=79.9 %

Similarly,

Total lengt h produced=4210 mm

−9
mass of t h e soap plodded=1150 × 25 ×55 × 4210× 10

¿ 6.66 kg

6.66
Plodding Efficiency (η pl )= ×100 %
7

¿ 95 %

Overall Efficiency (ηo )=η pf × η pl =0.799 × 0.95=0.76

η o=76 %

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CONCLUSION

The design, construction and testing of soap plodding machine was successfully completed

and tested. The machine is capable of producing 22 soaps with a volume of

25 mm ×55 mm × 95 mm per minute. The overall efficiency was found to be 76%. The soap

plodding machine has been designed to enhance both the economic value and surface finish

of the soap while eliminating tedious manual labour involved in the traditional method of

plodding soaps.

Finally, the machine can be used in any part of the country where there is electric power

supply. Operation of the machine requires less skill, in addition, the simplicity and economy

of manufacture and the availability of the required material made the construction feasible

within reasonable time.

However, for future improvement of the project, there is need for incorporation of soap

cutting mechanism and a special stamping mould which could be electrically operated by the

same motor using cam mechanism. Consequently, it would enhance the efficiency of the

machine.

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