Design and Development of a Low Cost-High Performance Semi-Automatic Fine Sand Sieving Machine

This research work proposes the study, design, and construction of a semi-automatic find sand sieving machine. The efficiency and performance of the designed machine in terms of productivity, quality and costs were analyzed and examined in comparison to the human operation. The experimental test results showed that the designed machine achieved significantly high efficiency and performance compared to the human operation. The machine was 5.4 times faster (66.0–72.0 kg/hr. compared to 12.2–13.6 kg/hr.) while achieved best quality of find sand with wet sand sieving capability. The production cost when using the machine was much lower than human operation by 132.6–137.6 times less cost (42.6–43.5 Baht/ton compared to 5,768–5,858 Baht/ton with continuous operation). The machine had a low construction cost of 9,700 Baht/machine. In addition, since the machine could operate with both dc or ac electric power, clean power such as solar or wind power could possibly be utilized and thus the future reduction in operation cost for large scale find sand production.