Experimental study on improving the Performance of husk removal in Paddy through rubber blend Compounds

Abstract

This research work deals with developing rubber blend compound for removing husk from rice. Removing husk from paddy is the first stage in rice milling process. In modern rice husking industries, rubber rollers are used because rice breakage is minimum compared to steel huller and under-runner disc Sheller. In milling process, white rice kernels are produced with the help of rubber rollers. During husking process, paddy is passed between two rubber rollers and husks are removed due to the friction between the rubber roller surfaces. An experimental study was held in small scale rice husking industry located in western part of Tamil Nadu. The study disclosed that the husk removal rate is high along with preceding rice breakage when the rubber compound possess higher hardness. The commercial rubber CR1 shows hardness value of 70, wear loss of 9.6343E-5 mm3, 90% husking and 50% rice breakage. At the same time when the hardness of the rubber compound is low, rice breakage is less along with high wear loss. In addition, the rubber compound bearing low hardness gets damaged by the sharp corners of paddy. On other hand, commercial rubber CR2 shows hardness value of 52, wear loss of 2.66E-4 mm3, 60% rice husking and 10% rice breakage. Due to the latter mentioned factor, the life of rubber compound reduces and requires periodic replacements. This leads to a situation to develop rubber compound with better service life and potential physico-mechanical properties for removing husk from paddy. Carbon black (ISAF N231) filled pure and lends of NR, NBR, XNBR, ENR and PVCN are prepared. An experimental setup was developed in laboratory to examine the rice husking and breakage percentage newline