Journal of Engineering Research and Reports

The reinvigorated approach by stakeholders towards Farm Mechanization has given birth to emerging fears in the existing relationship between mechanized agriculture and traditional land occupancy systems in Nigeria. The increased importation of agricultural machines into the country gave room for cropland growth that butt in farm lands acquired by rural farmers through customary ways. This paper examines these fears in four segments. The first segment searches the unstable land occupancy systems in Nigeria that have showed an elegant equilibrium relationship between constitutions and traditional acts. The second observes the acceptance of Agricultural mechanization and the expanding relevance of tractors. The third scrutinizes the different fears, aggravated by population increase, which come in being as mechanization overshoots on traditionally secured lands. These fears result in to the abuse of labour, continuous land seizures, and the imposing of rural farmers into a blank in which few market options live. To assist relief these fears, the final segment recommends the moderating of large Agricultural machines growth and the systematic improvement of land occupancy systems in preparation for more privatization. By marrying land occupancy systems and Farm mechanization, the environments will survive for more judicious evolution in Nigeria.

Comparing the complexity of the hardware and the control system, cold gas micro thrusters are much more simplified than other propulsion thrusters. Numerical calculation was carried out for mass requirement, mass flow rate, valves, feed system and computational fluid dynamics with finite element analysis was used for tank, pipe and nozzle design. Four different materials: Structural steel, Stainless steel, Aluminum and Titanium, were considered for tank design. They were subjected to the same conditions for four different tank geometries. The propulsion system was designed to be able to produce between 1 and 2 minutes of continuous thrust and the sudden impulses of between 0.8 and 1 seconds of gas expulsion, with over 20 impulses as desired thrust time. The mass and the volume needed for multiple tank geometries, concepts, and materials were determined. The main performance characteristics of the micro thrusters evaluated were Pressure Distribution, Velocity Profile, Temperature Distribution, Nozzle Efficiency and the corresponding Mach Number Distribution. This work is to provide a stable and controllable platform for testing equipment that can be ultimately applied to space applications.  

The paper focused on the improvement done in chip on lead (COL) leadframe package assembly manufacturing to address the leadframe bouncing effect during die attach process. A new and enhanced process plate is designed with multi-hole configuration to provide a strong vacuum underneath the leadframe and to maintain the planarity during dispensing and die bonding of silicon dies onto the leadframe. With the new multi-hole process plate, leadframe bouncing was successfully eliminated during die attach process. For future works, the multi-hole process plate could be used on devices with similar configuration.

An Irish potato peeling machine was developed for use at small-scale/household level. Machine performance evaluation was carried out using three locally grown Irish potato varieties namely; Nicola, Bartita and Bawondoya respectively. A 2²x3 factorial experiment in completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications was used for evaluation where tuber feed rate, shaft speed and variety were the independent variables and peeling efficiency, tuber flesh loss and machine output capacity were the performance indicators. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results showed the effects of variety on peeling efficiency and feed rate on output capacity as highly significant (P=.01). Also, the interaction of speed and variety on peeling efficiency and the effect of variety on output capacity was significant (P=.05). The interaction of variety and speed at 480 rpm achieved a maximum mean peeling efficiency of 55.6% for Bawondoya. Similarly, at slightly higher speed of 510 rpm, the maximum mean peeling efficiency of 64.6% was achieved for Bartita. Flesh loss value of 0.84% was the least obtained and this was for Bartita while the highest flesh loss of 1.43% was observed for Nicola. At feed rates of 50 g/sec and 60 g/sec; the minimum and maximum output capacities of 31.3 kg/h and 59.2 kg/h were obtained respectively.

Financial instruments are one of the tools for increasing financing to fund construction projects. Stakeholders in the Nigerian construction industry face challenges such as profitability, delays, funding problems and contractor’s insolvency. A thorough knowledge of the financial instruments is required while framing the project cash flows, and access to finance from any financial institutions requires the terms and conditions of a particular financial instrument. This study seeks to identify the financial instruments used in financing construction project in Nigeria with the view to creating awareness and as well provide in-depth understanding of the financial instruments that will aid ease the funding problem of construction projects. A qualitative research approach was adopted. A purposive sampling method was used to identify 10 commercial banks in Nigeria. Ten interviews were conducted to identify and gain understanding of the current financial instruments used in financing construction project in Nigeria. The content analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that “advance payment guarantee”, “bid bond”, “performance bond”, “retention bond”, “bank guarantee” and “syndication loan” were the current financial instruments used in financing construction project in Nigeria. The findings provide in-depth understanding of the identified financial instruments for financing construction project through a literature review. These financial instruments are essential for fund security in the construction industry.