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The effects of soaking on moisture-dependent mechanical properties of some selected grains essential to design of an automatic continuous grain drinks processing machine was studied. Three grain types were used for the study, they are white maize, white sorghum and large seeded soya beans. The white maize and white guinea corn were soaked for 36 h, while large seeded soya beans was soaked for 12 h in accordance to standard procedure (Gaffa et al., 2003; Gbabo et al., 2012). The result obtained showed that moisture content level of the grains increased with increased in soaking time from 12.4 to 20.5% M.C. for corn when soaked for 36 h, 11.3 to 20.6% M.C for sorghum when soaked for 36 h and 10.9 to 20.5% M.C for soya beans when soaked for 12 h. Soya beans had the highest decreases in rupture force with increase in moisture content level (10.9 to 20.5%) from 197.47 to 89.47 N (54.69% decrease), while corn had the least decreases with increase in moisture content level (12.4 to 20.5%) from 266.67 to 170.23 N (36.17% decrease). Also soya beans had the highest increases in rupture energy with increase in moisture content level (10.9 to 20.5%) from 27.79 to 81.95 N mm (194.89% increase), while corn had the least increase with increase in moisture level (12.4 to 20.5%) from 42.626 to 49.40 N mm (15.89% increase). In addition the expected quantity of drink to be produce from the machine under 8 h operational hours per day were 274.4 L from 34.3 kg of soya beans, 520 L from 65 kg of sorghum and 411.2 L from 51.4 kg of corn. The result thus, obtained will assist in designing of the machine and also ensured its maximum performance.

This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Author AG from the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) Badeggi was the person that designed and fabricated the old rice parboiling system. He was involved in the redesign, fabrication, performance assessment and analysis of the modified version of the parboiling system. He fabricated, tested and compiled the final paper. Authors AK and FS from Japan international Corporation Agency (JICA) were involved in the testing of the old parboiling system and recommended modification to be done in order to improve the performance. After the fabrication of the new model of the parboiler, they actively took part in the testing and final appraisal of the work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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