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This study assessed the sustainable parameters of electric distribution cables produced in Nigeria to aid the elimination of hazards associated with overheating of inferior cables in this country. This involved sampling of different gauges of fore brands (Wesco, Cutix, Scan and Coleman) of Nigerian made house wiring/installation cables from major industrial markets of his nation and testing them for conformity with NIS and IEEE specifications. The gauge/cross sectional area of cables investigated ranges from 1mm² to 16mm² while resistivity, elongation, flame retardant, tensile strength constitutes quality indicators evaluated with prevailing market prices cost in Nigeria within November 2021. Results showed that the four cable brands appraised conformed to set standards for tensile strength, resistivity, and flame retardant with Cutix cables exhibiting top profiles. Wesco, Cutix and Coleman cables exhibit low smoke and fume while scan revealed low smoke and halogen free cable burning features. Coleman cable showed a linear relationship in the elongation curve while Wesco, Cutix and Scan tend to follow the plasticity profile. Thus, proper care must be taken during installation of Coleman cables to avoid damage to the cable surface. Cutix cables are most expensive among all gauges due to their high copper content of their conductor material compared to other sampled brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanization of knife-edged peeling process of broom bristles production from coconut and oil palm leaflets and its integration to a tethering system were accomplished in this study. This upshots a prototype of integrated peeling-tethering machine comprising two pairs of roller-feeders, a stripper and tethering module as basic components. The machine processes both fresh and dry palm leaflets effectively with drudgery, risk and materials 'wastes reduction potential surpassing those of the mechanized abrasive aided peeling based broom processing systems. It operates with an average efficiency and benefit-cost ratio of 96% and 2.45 respectively. The throughput of this machine exhibits inverse proportional profile with the length of leaflets processed. Thus, the innovation is technically and economically viable for advancement of palm broom processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quadratic model was developed in this study to predict equipment life span for a preventive maintenance planning of KHS DMG-VF84 bottling line system. This life span forecasting model for KHS DMGVF84 bottling line system predict equipment life span at an instant of time. The six key predictors that were significant in the developed model are: Availability (A), Reliability (R), Mean time to Repair (T), Failure rate (F), Operational time (O) and Mean time before failure (B). The model utilized the polynomial method to predict the end of life of the bottling line system. The test data showed that the mean absolute percentage error for this model is 7.5% and has the ability to predict life span of the bottling line system with a good degree of accuracy of 79.65% with ± 0.20% error and the coefficients of determination R² for the developed model is 0.7965. This indicates that the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables of the developed model is good and the predicted values from a forecast model fit with the real-life data as well. Therefore, maintenance professionals should adopt this model for accurate estimates, to enable good detection of possible failures in production machineries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study involves life cycle cost analysis of portable gasoline generator brands mostly used for home power back up in Nigeria to guide the citizens' choice during acquisition. A total of two thousand six hundred and twenty electric power generating sets sampled from seventeen cities in Nigeria were evaluated by direct observation/descriptive experimental design. The evaluation parameters include initial or procurement, operation and maintenance costs, fuel consumption rate, operation period and residual value. Results showed Tiger, Sumec, Elemax, Elepaq and Jinjing as the most patronized brands of portable gasoline generators for home power back up in Nigeria major cities while 0.8 and 2.2KVA constitute the most used power ratings of the generators. Also 0.8KVA Sumec and 2.2KVA Elemax were revealed as most cost effective due to their comparative low life cycle cost of N26, 810 and N39,820 respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mechanistic based model for computing efficiency of an improved cassava attrition peeling machine was developed and evaluated in this study to enable performance predictions prior to fabrication. The model accounted for all relevant parameters affecting peeling with peeling efficiency established as a function of tuber mass, moisture content, drum speed, sphericity, peel thickness, number and surface area of peeling balls among others. The simulation model was developed using algebraic substitution/computation based algorithm. The comparative analysis validated the simulation model with the improved model's prediction error ranging from-0.006% to 0.011% resulting in over 99% prediction accuracy. Also, the simulation presented a user friendly interface that eliminated the computational rigors associated with error prone manual computations as a relief to researchers in the cassava processing sector. Hence, the improved peeling efficiency model and its simulation are recommended for developing varying capacities of cassava peelers required by end users in order to eliminate cost intensive trial and error associated with the empirical approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]