Process

"Technology meets Tradition"

Paddy obtained from the fields has to be suitably processed for obtaining edible rice. Rice milling is the process which helps in removal of hulls and barns from paddy grains to produce polished rice. In post-production of rice, milling is a crucial step which removes the husk and the bran layers, and produces an edible, white rice kernel that is sufficiently milled and free of impurities. Depending on the requirements of the customer, the rice should have a minimum of broken kernels. Most rice varieties are composed of roughly 20% rice hull, 11% bran layers, and 69% starchy endosperm, also referred to as the total milled rice. Total milled rice contains whole grains or head rice, and broken rice. The by-products in rice milling are rice hull, rice germ and bran layers, and fine broken rice.

In rice milling, the paddy grains are fed into the indent cylinder at the feed inlet situated at the high end of the sloping cylinder. The undersize grain is captured by the indents and is carried up as the cylinder revolves until a point is reached where the grain is dislodged by gravity and is collected in a flared trough screw conveyor and discharged. The full grain remains in the bottom of the cylinder and because of the inclination of the cylinder travels to a separate discharge outlet. Rice forms the basic primary processed product obtained from paddy and this is further processed for obtaining various secondary and tertiary products.

Rice milling can be a simple one or two step process, or a multi stage process. In a one step milling process, husk and bran removal are done in one pass and milled or white rice is produced directly out of paddy. In a two step process, removing husk and removing bran are done separately, and brown rice is produced as an intermediate product. In multistage milling, rice will undergo a number of different processing steps.

Pavizham Rice Milling

At the PAVIZHAM RICE mill, we mill the paddy in stages, and hence multi-stage or multi-pass rice mills are used here. Mechanical stresses and heat build-up in the grain are vastly reduced here, thereby minimizing grain breakage and producing uniformly polished grain. Compared to other milling systems, Pavizham rice milling system is a more sophisticated system configured to maximize the process of producing well-milled, whole grains.

The rice milling facility has many stages right from the husking stage, to the whitening-polishing stage, the grading, blending, and packaging stage.

Pre -cleaning:

Removing all impurities and unfilled grains from paddy. 

De-stoning:

Separating small stones from paddy

Parboiling (Optional):

It helps in improving the nutritional quality by gelatinization of starch inside the rice grain. It improves the milling recovery percent during de-shelling and polishing / whitening operation

Husking:

Removing husk from paddy

Husk Aspiration:

Separating the husk from brown rice/ un-husked paddy

Paddy Separation:

Separating the un-husked paddy from brown rice.

Whitening:

Removing all or part of the bran layer and germ from brown rice

Polishing:

Improving the appearance of milled rice by removing the remaining bran particles and by polishing the exterior of the milled kernel.

Length Grading: Separating small and large broken rice from head rice

Blending:

Mixing head rice with predetermined amount of broken rice, as required by the customer

Weighing and bagging:

Preparing the milled rice for transport to the Customer

In PAVIZHAM rice mills, many adjustments (e.g. rubber roll clearance, separator bed inclination, feed rates) are automated for maximum efficiency and ease of operation. The whitener-polishers are provided with gauges that sense the current load on the motor drives which gives an indication of the operating pressure on the grain. This provides a more objective means of setting milling pressures on the grain.