Development & Fabrication of Pedal Operated Multi-Purpose Incense Stick Making Machine

Mechanical Engineering

Incense sticks called agarbattis in India, are becoming internationally known as a ritual product used for spiritual purpose producing fragrance for aromatherapy and meditation. The agarbatti workers in India lack efficient tools and education to develop better means of processing agarbattis The Development And Fabrication Of Pedal Operated Multi-purpose Incense Stick Making Machine to alleviate the labor intensive work associated with the production of bamboo-cored incense sticks is the main purpose of this paper. The machine is based on the mechanism of extruding the incense stick paste over the bamboo stick. The main components of this machine include a foot-pedal, a pawl and ratchet mechanism, rack and pinion system and an extruder. As the paste used is of a semi-solid nature and a high force was needed for extrusion, the foot lever and a pawl and ratchet mechanism was designed ergonomically to obtain an estimation of the force required for the extrusion so that the applied force results in a minimal foot-muscle fatigue for the operator.

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