Development of a paddy rice de-husking cum polishing machine.

Locally processed rice by small to medium scale processors are still not fully appreciated due to low quality. Paddy rice de-husking cum polishing machine was designed, fabricated and evaluated for its performance efficiency. The effects of paddy moisture content, speed of rotation, and polishing time on the machine performance and milling properties were evaluated. The economic analysis of the machine was also evaluated. Moisture content and speed of rotation of the shaft had effect on the throughput capacity (TC), head rice yield (HRY), percentage broken rice (BR), but not on the percentage un-dehusked (PUD) in production of brown rice. The moisture content, speed of rotation, and polishing time had effect on the BR and PUD, but not on the HRY in the production of polished rice. The minimum and maximum values for brown rice were TC (25.38 and 41.25 kghr-1 ), PUD (15.77% and 46.42%), HRY (50.47% and 67.75%), BR (2.17% and 12.03%). Minimum and maximum values for polished rice were PUD (1.12% and 7.34%), HRY (78.97% and 90.50%), BR (2.77% and 10.41%). Economic evaluation shows that the developed dehusker cum polisher is beneficial and can be adopted by small to medium scale rice processors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]