Design and Experimental Evaluation of a Low-Power Organic Waste Shredder with Conveyor Feeding Mechanism

Abstract

Household composting benefits from controlled size reduction, but many reported organic-waste shredders require power levels or three-phase supplies that are unsuitable for domestic use. This study designed and experimentally evaluated a 250 W, single-phase organic-waste shredder equipped with a conveyor-assisted feeding mechanism. The design procedure comprised requirement definition, transmission and shaft calculations, CAD modelling, finite-element analysis (FEA), prototype fabrication, and repeated capacity tests using leaves, fruit peels, and corn cobs. A 1:10 gearbox and a two-stage V-belt transmission were used to increase torque, while the conveyor supplied material to the cutting chamber at 0.17 m/s. The frame analysis produced a maximum von Mises stress of 45.46 MPa, a maximum displacement of 0.12 mm, and a minimum factor of safety of 4.06 under the specified 80 kg static load. Mean throughput was 12.0 kg/h for leaves, 10.0 kg/h for fruit peels, and 7.5 kg/h for corn cobs. The configuration therefore demonstrates the feasibility of low-power household shredding; however, its claimed feeding advantage must be interpreted as a design feature until a controlled conveyor-versus-direct-feeding experiment is completed. Particle-size distribution and inferential statistics must also be reported before final acceptance.