Investigating performance of small scale sisal decorticating machine

The performance of decorticator should be evaluated in terms of its effectiveness and efficiency. This study was performed to determine the performance of Nyumbu mobile decorticating machine.The machine was designed for small scale sisal growers in Tanzania, the performance of machine was affected by the following parameters; namely, number of personnel involved in decortications process, amount of sisal fibre and waste produced by the machine from decorticated sisal leaves, fuel consumption, quality of fibre produced and costs of the machine. Different literature review references concerning sisal processing and decorticator machine including the results of test have shown that the machine manage to decorticate sisal leaves by producing substandard under grade (SS UG) sisal fibre. Testing of decorticator machine was done at Mjesani estate Tanga and Nyumbu Kibaha Pwani. The results obtained were analyzed and discussed to see the amount of fibre produced per day, amount of sisal leaves machine can process per day, number of operators, fuel consumption of machine and operating cost of machine.