Bulletis of Natural and Applied Sciences
Vol. 1(3):75-84
Design, Construction and Testing of a Digital Industrial Incubator
Almustapha Alhaji Umar, Yakub Aliyu, Umar Muhammad Kangiwa and Isah Maccido Aliyu; Department of Physics, Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aliero Nigeria
ABSTRACT
This paper presented the design, construction and testing of an improved digital industrial incubator. This research aimed to produce a reliable and efficient industrial incubator; the method uses digital temperature and humidity sensors for more accurate temperature and humidity control in various industries. The system overcomes the disadvantage of analog- based thermostat systems for stable and precise operation. The design incorporates a digital temperature sensor to detect temperature and pass on the data to the microcontroller. The 328 microcontroller processes data and sends the temperature and humidity to be displayed on the LCD screen. The most critical performance limitation in incubators was explored to find improved solutions. The problems associated with transient or momentary shut-off due to voltage or current surge during operation were overcome through improved design by adopting an improved stable compensation circuit. Other issues faced by commercial incubators due to non-uniform temperatures and the loss of some hatching eggs were addressed by integrating high-performance condition sensors in the design. The system displays both temperature and humidity in the LCD. When it exceeds our set limit, it automatically switches off load (heater) to control the temperature. The incubator has a hatching capacity of thirty eggs, factors that were considered during the performance evaluation of the technology were temperature 37 ̊C and humidity 55% till hatching. Turning of eggs was achieved with the use of a permanent magnet motor mechanism controlled by the programmed for one minutes for six hours each. Thirty fresh and matured eggs were collected from the breeder and were used to test the incubator. The test results show the average hatchability was 92.2% and infertility of 7.8%. This indicates that the incubator had outstanding results that will boost poultry production in the country.
