Farmers used to take out the coconuts from the whole nuts harvested from the coconut trees. For peeling out the coconut from the whole nut, crowbar is used. Instead of taking out the coconut from the wholenut Mr. Duraisamy developed an iron cutter. By using this cutter the whole nut can be split into two halves. Then they can be used for extracting the oil or for culinary purposes. At present he is fitting a motor with 1/2 hp or 1 hp so that the cutting of nuts can be mechanised. He is also advocating that instead of harvesting nuts from the tree he insists for collecting fallen out nuts. Such nuts are fully matured and the oil content will be more. These nuts should be stored for four and half months before the kernels are used for extracting the oil. Normally nuts are stored for two months after the harvest. By Duraisamy’s method of harvesting and storing, the kernel’s weight and oil content can be increased considerably. From one quintal of kernels 71/2kg of extra oil can be obtained. From one quintal of nuts 15 kg of kernels can be obtained instead of normal 10 kg of kernels in ordinary method. He is also using this cutter for extracting oil from palmyrah nuts. By mechanising this cutter (By attaching 1/2 hp or 1 hp motor) 8,000 nuts can be broken. It is saving the labour cost. Usually in one minute 25 nuts can be broken manually. the machines currently in use are typically large and consume as much as 5,000 watt. The machine designed as part of an incubation project is 46 per cent smaller in volume and consumes around 2,100 watt.

“Our machine can be easily customised according to the shape and size of the product to be manufactured. We have made thermoformed pieces using our machine with a cycle time of 3.5 seconds,” he adds.

Innovator Details:

M. Senthil Kumar, professor of mechanical engineering and principal of the college, which is affiliated to Anna University. 20 years of experience in this field. He was working in an automobile company, then he started work in a welding company. He is 42 years old and studied till 8th std.