Numerical modeling of a domestic press for vegetable oil extraction using finite element analysis

Abstract

One of the methods used for the extraction of vegetable oils is the mechanical worm screw pressing, which consists of the compression of the seeds by advancing the material inside the screw barrel. Although the extraction of vegetable oils has been developed mainly at an industrial level, domestic oil extraction presses are devices that allow the user to obtain natural products. Scaling industrial production processes to low-level proportions such as domestic requires iterative models during design development, which include the permutation of values that influence the performance and size of the machine. In the present study, the design and modeling of a vegetable oil extractor press were developed, this equipment processes seeds with an equivalent size of up to 25 mm, and with a processing capacity of up to 10 Kg/hour. The influence of the geometric variables of the pressing mechanism on the operation of the machine was studied through an iterative process. The results were verified by obtaining the requirements established for a domestic press.