A tedious task made easy with cashew peeler

by Surekha Galagoda

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Cashew is tasty and is loved by all, young or old, but the labour that goes to separate it from the shell is a tedious task as it is done using one’s bare hands and if the cashew balm comes in contact with one’s body it will fester causing much pain and discomfort.

This prompted B.K. Mahipala to invent a cashew peeler which separates the cashew from the shell without damaging the cashew or harming human hands.

A resident of Minuwangoda, Mahipala initially repaired bicycles, clocks and watches but the income he earned was barely sufficient. Therefore, he decided to invent something useful to society so that all would benefit.

In 1999 he manufactured the cashew peeler which won him awards and medals not only in Sri Lanka but in Switzerland as well. He won the Presidential award for inventions, the competition conducted by the Inventors Commission and won a gold medal in Geneva, Switzerland.

According to the information I have, this is the latest technology in the world, said Mahipala.

Even in India they use a hand press machine to peel the shell.

The machine designed by me initially had to be fed with a single cashew nut at a time while now it is improved to auto feed the cashew nuts. This saves time and labour of those using it and the end result is increasing the productivity of the cashew industry.

Any of the value added industries relating to cashew can use the machine as it extracts the nut from the shell without damaging the nut.

Today Mahipala owns Buddhi Industries (Pvt) Ltd and 22 people work under him manufacturing the machines.

He sells around 10 machines per month and as he is the patent owner of the machine nobody else can manufacture it in Sri Lanka. However, since it is not patented around the globe anybody can purchase the machine and start manufacturing it.

The only problem in getting an international patent is that for each country a patent should be obtained separately as there is no mechanism to obtain one patent which is valid around the world.

He has also invented a dryer which uses the shell of cashew as fuel. At present the cashew shells are used to brew illicit liquor. He said without discarding the shells after extracting the nut it is better to use it as a medium of fuel as energy is becoming scarce by the day.

His future plans are expanding his business and doing more inventions. A father of three children, Mahipala thanked everybody who helped him along the way.