The purpose of the mechanical potato peeler design is to peel potatoes or any similar skinned fruit or vegetable quickly and easily. The problem is peeling any vegetable by hand with a hand held peeler is tiring, messy and the risk of injury is high. It also takes up too much time. Many people who prepare food at home, in a restaurant or a food franchise are faced with the tiresome task of peeling fruit and vegetables. When working in a restaurant food needs to be prepared as fast and as best as possible. Hand peeling vegetables will take up valuable time especially if there is a lot a vegetables to peel. It is important to solve this problem so that the potato or any fruit or vegetable peeling process is quick and easy for any person peeling potatoes.
Research and analysis of existing designs of mechanical peelers already on the market showed the …show more content…
A mechanical potato peeler needed to be designed to solve this problem. Research and analysis of existing designs showed that there where deficiencies that could be improved. The design engineers where presented with specifications of the potential design. To meet the specifications and objectives, 3 conceptual designs were compiled that included advantageous aspects of existing peelers and the required specifications. A decision matrix was used to determine the most suitable design to manufacture. Suitable material was selected based on cost, availability and corrosion resistance.
Calculations performed yielded small results. The torque required for lowering and raising (2.54N.m and 6.84N.m respectively) was significantly small. These results are acceptable as a small applied force will be amplified by the power screw. The dimensions of the torsion spring suggest that the spring will allow the blade to have sufficient normal force (50N) when peeling the potato. The bolt needs to be tightened with a force of 3169.44N in order to secure the blade to the stand while in