The presence of long impurities in their paddy is one of the most common challenges facing rice producers
Items such as straws and strings from jute bags can often clog downstream equipment, leading to unnecessary and costly downtime – and hitting hard profits. With its rake unit, Bühler’s LALA pick-up cleaner increases the capacity of the rice mill by eliminating these impurities in a targeted and effective manner, eliminating up to 80% with ease.
After harvesting, the paddy is prepared to dry and threshed to separate the grain from the stalk, before being transported to the rice mill for further processing. In less automated mills, workers have to pick up long impurities by hand – a time-consuming but essential process to prevent downstream machines such as dryers and cleaners from becoming clogged and the entire plant’s operation from grinding to a halt.
With the LALA, these long impurities are separated by a vibrating sieve from the freshly harvested paddy, then picked up by the rake unit. LALA is also highly effective for wet paddy, with a throughput rate of 25 tonnes per hectare at a product moisture rate of 28%.
Its spacious and fully enclosed design significantly reduces dust emissions and makes it extremely easy to clean and maintain, and for even better results it can be combined with a Bühler SMA screening machine to removes stones, broken grains and dust during a thorough second pre-cleaning step.
The LALA pre-cleaning process not only prevents costly downtime, but also improves the final quality of the rice and can significantly extend the life of the plant’s equipment as there is far less wear.
It also enhances the safety of mills, as it replaces potentially hazardous alternative working methods, and allows staff to be reassigned to less physically intensive tasks. As labour in many rice-producing areas is becoming more expensive as workers are increasingly migrating to cities, this helps to retain staff and means even more savings for mill operators.
“We are extremely proud of the LALA, with the unrivalled rake unit at its heart,” said Bühler Product Manager Marina Hirschberger. “It’s safer and more cost-effective than traditional processes, and its highly efficient removal of long impurities makes it a genuine revolution in the paddy cleaning process.”
“The pick-up cleaner LALA has improved our pre-cleaning paddy quality, which has a significant role in enhancing the overall production,” said Jay Kumar Malpani at Naxalbari Flour and Rice Mill, West Bengal, India. “It’s really a wonderful invention by Bühler for separating strings from the freshly harvested paddy. The paddy quality for parboiling is now far superior than before, which of course means increased profitability.”
