Design and construction of a motorized rice destoner for Butaleja farmers.

Abstract

Rice is the second highest worldwide grown crop after maize arid is sustenance of life. In Uganda. Rice is grown all around .the country. but widely in the eastern region. Rice demand in. Uganda exceeds local production and production among. the'. smallholder farmers is faced with tile problem of poor rice quality due to traditional methods employed in handling ULl mi1led rice-and they usually expose rice to contamination which results 'in low milled. rice quality, increased operation cost and 19W market value of milled rice . This study sought to develop a small scale and cost effective de-stoner for value addition in small scale 'rice processing and improving local production and for enabling production of other higher value rice products which diversify the rice market base. The main objective is to design and construct a small "Scale motorized rice de-stoner and other objectives that will. read to achieving the main objective. The purpose of the study is to .design and construct a small scale motorized rice de-stoner that will enable Butaleja fanners and rice processors produce clean rice arid compete in the current liberalized world economy. The sources of contamination like, drying on a bare ground; rudimentary. methods of threshing like the beating method and the sorting methods and machines of sorting rice like manual hand picking gravity selector which separates. impurities-from. Rice by their difference "in specific gravity. Material selection was based on the. availability on the: market, ease of fabrication and design considerations that will help in 'the design pf machine components like. hopper, shaft, frame, sievefan and the motor. Fabrication and construction methods included machining, welding, bending, cutting, forging among others. The machine performance 'considering the available varieties was' done and results showed that the highest performance of stones was removed from Pakistan than Kaiso. The machine was fabricated, tested and was found to be viable, Changes like removing the fan-,and including .:the shields were recommended.