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Beyond the Ri’ichi: Part 3:
Processing long-grain rice - Husking
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by Hiromi Saita, Senior Staff, International Management Office, Satake Corporation, Japan
ong grain rice processing, as well as short grain, requires unique technology and techniques due to their physical characteristics. As a manufacturer, we continuously develop and improve equipment for long grain rice. Satake utilises technology gained from a long history of processing short grain rice and experience from processing various products.
58 | February 2020 - Milling and Grain
Let’s take a look at long grain paddy husking
There are two basic yet fundamentally important requirements to husk long grain rice. Firstly, proper paddy feeding to the husking equipment is required. When feeding paddy in vertical free fall, grain may overlap each other and cause grain breakage due to excessive pressure at a localised point on the grain. In other words, inappropriate feeding leads to a drastic decrease in yield for long grain rice. It is important to feed paddy evenly without stacking, to ensure the long life of the husking equipment. Secondly, in many 24-hour-operation large-scale facilities, the two rubber rolls are swapped every one or two days to evenly distribute rolls wear. When using poor quality rubber rolls, swapping become more frequent, so does downtime and it becomes more significant as the number of machines increases. Sometimes, at these facilities, operators are hired specifically for rubber rolls swapping and replacement. To reduce machine maintenance and down time, it is important to increase the throughput capacity of each machine while minimising the frequency of roll swapping and replacement.