Maximising Efficiency: Tips for Optimising Your Rice Mill Machine’s Performance
As a staple food in India and many other countries, rice has always been in high demand. It is the rice mill machinery that facilitates the removal of bran and hulls from paddy grains and polishes the latter to make the rice edible and ready for the market. These machines usually comprise a hopper where the rice is loaded before milling starts, a cylinder that removes the outer husk, a speed controller that regulates the speed at which milling takes place, and a grain separator that sorts the rice from peeled husks. A rice milling machinery also comes with a power unit for energy supply as well as a frame and casing to keep both the machine and the user safe.
However, to make sure you only produce the best quality rice in the shortest time possible and with maximum efficiency, follow these tips to optimise your rice mill machine’s performance.
Strategies to Utilise Your Rice Mill Machinery Efficiently
For starters, it is a good idea to buy a technologically advanced machine so you can streamline and automate the end-to-end rice milling process. This is a wise way to ensure higher output and save time while sorting, grading, cleaning, and packaging grains. Your overall profitability will also improve. Here are some other hacks to make the most of your rice mill machinery:
- Regular Maintenance
Regular maintenance can not only prolong your rice mill machinery’s lifespan but also prevent or minimise breakdowns. So, to get rid of dust, debris, and dirt, get the machine cleaned regularly. Tighten up any loose nuts, bolts, or screws. Inspect all parts of the machine for signs of cracks, dents, damage, or wear and tear, and replace components if necessary. Opt for genuine spares only, as duplicate ones won’t last long or give you the desired results. To ensure the smooth functioning of the machine, make sure all its movable parts are well-lubricated.
- Appropriate Loading of Pre-Cleaning Section
Assess the capacity of your rice mill machinery’s pre-cleaning section before you load it up. This is because overloading can lead to the contamination of the destoning machine with dust and stones and affect its performance negatively. Make sure the pre-cleaning section is cleaned regularly as well, to boost its efficiency.
- Suitable System for Removing Bran
A proper bran removal system is essential so that the bran is removed from the grains efficiently at every stage and the pressure on the rice is uniform. In the absence of an appropriate bran removal system, the whitener part of your rice mill machinery might hold the grains for too long, causing low polish, friction, and excessive heat. It can make the rice grains soft and increase the propensity to break. You must also clean the whitening and polishing section regularly to prevent clogged screens and keep the milling chamber from heating up too much.
- Optimal Humidity
While operating the rice mill machinery, maintain the accurate moisture level for efficient production and yield quality. Excessive moisture, for instance, can encourage the growth of mould or cause the grains to form fissures or break. Hence, implement suitable systems for monitoring moisture and follow accurate drying techniques. Calibrate moisture sensors and tweak the parameters for drying regularly, too, so that the paddy is dried consistently. Maintain a humidity level of 12-15% after the raw paddy is dried or parboiled to prevent rewetting or over-drying.
- Rubber Roll Huskers and Paddy Separator
Steel hullers are no longer going to serve the highest purpose of your rice mill machinery as they have been found to cause more grain breakage and low recovery. Instead, use rubber roll huskers in which two same-sized rubber rollers run at different speeds to separate the paddy from the husk. While one roller is adjustable, the other has a fixed position to do the job efficiently.
A paddy separator is another wise investment as it separates brown rice from paddy and foreign materials before the former goes for whitening. De-husking, followed by paddy separation, leads to the production of milled rice of a better grade. Your rice mill machinery also experiences less wear and tear this way.
- Two-Stage Whitening and Grading
One of the best ways to improve the performance of your rice mill machinery is to have a minimum of two stages in the whitening procedure. It improves energy efficiency, minimises the chances of grains overheating, and the user gets to fix individual settings at every step. Two-stage whitening enhances the quality and quantity of the milled rice.
You can also set up a screen sifter to eliminate chips and broken pieces from polished rice and produce flour from them instead of letting all the broken pieces go to waste.
- Workforce Training
Your workers cannot run, take care of, and resolve issues in the rice mill machinery effectively unless they have the knowledge and skills to do so. So, train them accordingly and show them how to follow the machine’s manual. They should be able to detect problems at the earliest, prevent them wherever possible, and minimise downtime for maximum productivity. Also, teach them about safety protocols and how to use safety gear so they can take necessary precautions. Your staff should also know how to monitor and set optimal milling parameters, in terms of pressure, duration, flow rates, and so on for different kinds of rice. Train them on how they can review and revise the same to meet changing production requirements and produce the desired quality of rice.
- Energy Audit and Waste Management
Track the amount of energy your rice mill machinery consumes regularly and keep an eye out for sudden surges. Energy audits conducted periodically can help you identify areas where you can implement more sustainable practices in the future, thereby lowering operational expenses. To manage waste smartly, you can recycle the bran, husk, and other by-products, thereby boosting efficiency while reducing any negative impact on the environment.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, to make the most of your rice mill machinery, keep it clean, practise preventive maintenance, embrace technological advancements, and impart appropriate training to your workforce. By incorporating sensors in the machine along with data analytics, you can also derive actionable insights. This way, you can make more informed decisions, optimise milling parameters with greater precision, and augment the rice mill machinery’s overall performance and output in the years to come.
