ME students develop a machine for grinding and roasting rice together

(Read another report on the achievement HERE.)

Most flour mills have only machines to first grind and then roast rice for making rice powder in order to use it for various dishes. But now final year B Tech (ME) students of Vidya have come up with a machine to grind and roast the rice at the same time. This idea came upon after they found that many mills were having difficulty in grinding and roasting rice separately.

The machine works with a 1 Horsepower 1400 RPM motor. The grinding and roasting take place simultaneously with the help of Bevel and Spur gears. After grinding the the rice powder is collected in a vessel immediately beneath and then roasted using ordinary LPG gas. Moreover using an electronics circuit it is possible to control the intensity of the gas emission and also to control the timing. As the machine is light weight  and compact, it can also be adopted for home use.

This machine was developed by Nirmal M Stephen, Sandeep A M, Vishnu V S and Varun Mohandas. The project was guided by Assistant Professors Hareesh K and Arun Lohidakshan under the leadership of Head of Department Dr N Ramachandran. The project was done as part of fulfilling the project requirements of 8th Semester curriculum of Kerala Technological University. As part of this students visited various mills in Puthukad, Ollur and Irinjalakuda. There are plans to suitably modify the machine after discussion with State food authorities and flour mill owners. They have also applied for a patent for the same.