Young RMUTT Electrical Engineering Students Develop Small Rice Milling Machine for Household Use

Young RMUTT Electrical Engineering Students Develop Small Rice Milling Machine for Household Use

Regardless of rice mill size, large quantities of rice will have to be milled, which poses a problem when storing rice as there will be rice moths once rice has been kept for an extended amount of time. Furthermore, the process of transferring rice that has not been milled to the mill consumes both time and cost. In order to solve the above predicaments, Mr. Anawin Kanakaew and Mr. Poomjai Laopong, students from the Department of Electrical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering at RMUTT have developed a small rice milling machine for household use, with Asst. Prof. Surin Ngamngarm as an advisor.

The rice milling machine design relied on using the PIC16F887 Microcontroller. The principle of friction rollers and direct PWM signals were used to control the speed of the motor. A series of commands from the Microcontroller allows the rice to be milled using a tray. The components of the small rice milling machine are comprised of 1. Tray for putting rice that to be milled 2. Roller that gradually shells out rice that has not been milled 3. Roller to peel off the shelled rice so it separates into three sets 4. Screen to prevent the rice from spilling out of the working area 5. White rice polisher, which acts as an abrasive to make rice white by polishing milled unpolished rice 6. Rice storage to store white rice from the milling machine 7. Rice husk storage to store rice husk that has been blown during the process 8. Box to control the working processes, which serves as a viable option to display results.

Results from testing show that the speed of milling brown rice requires a tachometer speed of 390 rpm, roller speed of 149 rpm, and three rounds of shelling the rice. A tachometer speed of 394.5 rpm/minute and roller speed of 149/rpm/minute is needed to repeatedly polish the rice. Nevertheless, the humidity level should be 17% in order to shell good quality rice that does not break, which is the uniqueness of the rice milling machine. Furthermore, one kilogram of rice may be milled. Rice husk and rice bran can be separated to produce rice that is devoid of contaminants and at least seven species of rice may be milled. For more information about the small rice milling machine, please contact Mr. Poomjai Laopong by calling 081-357-5494 or Mr. Anawin Kanakaew by calling 098-975-7826.