Design of a Potato Stick Cutting Machine: Improving Production Efficiency and Reducing Cutting Waste

The designed of potato stick-cutting machine is a tool for cutting potatoes into long pieces. This machine is capable of cutting potatoes quickly and consistently. The aim of this research is to design a potato stick-cutting machine that can increase production efficiency and reduce cutting waste. The advantage of this machine lies in its ability to produce uniform potato pieces quickly compared to manual cutting. The design stages start with a field review, literature study, determining the design, calculating all machine components, making working drawings, component manufacturing process, assembling components, and finally testing the machine. This machine consists of a frame, knife, pully, v belt, knife body, and electric motor with a capacity of 214.2 Kg/hour. This potato stick cutting machine has dimensions of length x width x height respectively of 810 x 400 x 385 mm. By using a ½ HP motor as the driving force. The way this machine works is that the motor rotation is forwarded to the gearbox to reduce the rotation using a type A belt with a length of 32 inches and a pulley diameter of 3 inches and 4 inches. The operation of this potato stick-cutting machine is very simple inserting the peeled potatoes into the funnel in a horizontal position. Turn on the motor by pressing the start button, then the piston/pusher will push the potato towards the knife.