The Design and Fabrication of a Recycled Paper Egg Tray Machine
Onilude, M. A.; Omoniyi, T. E.; Akinyemi B.A.; Adigun K.A.

Abstract
Turning wastepaper materials to different packaging materials is important to effectively manage the associated problem involved with its disposal and also to conserve our forest reservation. The imported machines for egg tray production processes are capital intensive, complex to operate, largely power dependent and also difficult to repair and maintain. Hence there is a need to find a local alternative to solve these problems. This paper therefore gives a brief description of the design and fabrication of a 30 cavity wastepaper egg tray machine of size 10 with transfer and counter moulds producing 12 egg trays/hour with a vacuum pump rating of 1.64kW using an already mechanically disintegrated pulp. The machine consist of slurry vat, mould, counter mould , the lowering mechanism , electric motor and vacuum pump. The geometry of the slurry vat include a 10 litre cylindrical vessel of 5mm vessel fixed with lowering mechanism controlling the movement of the mould and counter mould in the slurry vat. The design capacity is 12 egg trays/hour and the total estimated cost of the machine is $200 and it works on the principle of vacuuming the pulp slurry when the consistency is about 5%. The features of this pulp moulding machine consist of simple structure, easy operation and maintenance, low investment cost and larger application range.

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