Diseño y construcción de un prototipo de máquina desfibradora semiautomática de Fuercraea andina (cabuya blanca) para el sector artesanal del cantón Guano

Abstract

The small artisans carry out a manual procedure on the white cabuya leaf to obtain natural fibers for the production of ropes, halters, and sacks. This work is made up of stages: cutting, dethorning, crushing, washing and drying, generating physical wear and tear, and moreover a delay of up to 15 days. Therefore, the objective was to design and build a semi-automatic machine to shred white rope sheets for the artisanal sector. For this purpose, a bibliographic review was carried out to determine the physical and chemical properties of the leaf. In addition, the operating parameters that a shredding machine must have analyzed. Using the QFD (Quality Function Deployment) methodology and the morphological matrix, the technical requirements and the selection of the best alternative solution for the defiberation system, power transmission system, calibration system, control. The blades, supports and axis of the shredding system were theoretically calculated and modeled in SolidWorks Software, the strength and rigidity were validated by the finite element method in ANSYS Software. In addition, the power of the alternating current motor to defiber and the torque of the direct current motor for the movement of the calibration system were determined, with their respective control and power electrical connection schemes. Finally, it was built and its operation was evaluated, resulting in a homogeneous defiberation of the blade in an average time of 25 seconds, the greatest amount of fibers is obtained in a space of 1 to 2 mm between the blade and the sliding table. It is concluded that the methodology implemented was appropriate, since the machine has enough power to shred white rope sheets in a very short time.