DefinePK

Abstract

A new type of efficient rice grain cleaner with de-stoner was successfully developed in line with the absence of village-type rice grain cleaner in the Philippines that can both remove light impurities and stones at the same time. This was developed because of the inevitable accumulation of stones during drying and the high presence of impurities in the rice grain during harvesting that could cause damage to the rice mill and eventually affect the efficiency and operation of the milling machine. The developed technology relates to a rice grain cleaner with de-stoner that efficiently separates rice straws, rice chaffs, immature grains, tiny stones, dried leaves, dirt and other impurities from the rice grain through the combination of two-stage air-screen and pressure-type separation processes. The results of laboratory analysis of the collected rice grain samples revealed that the developed rice grain cleaner has a cleaning efficiency of 98.7 percent with de-stoner efficiency of 100 percent. These results indicate that the output of the rice grain cleaner has purity of 98.9 percent. The developed rice grain cleaner has passed the set Philippine agricultural engineering standard for seed cleaner of 98 percent. The results of test performance indicate that the design of the said machine is successful in utilizing the same amount of air that initially used at the de-stoner for the air-screen cleaner so that it can both functions as air-screen cleaner and de-stoner.