International Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences (IJEAS)

ISSN: 2394-3661, Volume-7, Issue-1, January 2020

Development of Low Cost Rice De-Stoning

Machine
Ohwofadjeke, Paul Ogheneochuko.

ABSTRACT: In Nigeria, Local rice processing has monocotyledonous with fibrous root system, which
suffered a lot of setback, such as problem of stones and belongs to the family gramiceae (grass family),
other foreign materials in processed rice. In an attempt genus Oryza and the specie sativa [9]. The botanical
to develop capacity to meet the ever increasing demand,
name of rice is; Oryzasativa. It is grown as an annual
this study designed, constructed, and evaluated
crop with average height of between 1-1.8m at
performance of a rice de-stoning machine. The study is
divided into five major tasks namely: (1) determination
maturity; it has slender leaves of about 50- 100 cm
of the engineering characteristics of five commonly long and 2.0-2.5 cm wide. Harvested rice are called
cultivated local rice varieties in Nigeria that are paddy, which are processed to obtain finished rice.
relevant to design of the de-stoning machine, (2) design Rice is popularly cooked and eaten with stew in
of basic components of rice destoner (3) engineering Nigeria, however, in the northern parts of Nigeria it
drafting of the components, (4) construction of de- is milled, moulded and fried into cakes called
stoning machine using local technology and sourced “gurasa”, or pounded and eating with soup known as
materials (5) performance evaluation of the fabricated
“Tou Shinkafi”. Commercially, rice can be processed
machine. Relevant engineering procedures and
into flour, for making pastry (bread, macaroni,
standards were applied to the determination of the
properties and design of the machine components. The
nodules, and biscuits) as well as confectionaries
machine with a design capacity of 3 tons per day was (infant meals, flakes and cakes). Also rice bran which
constructed in the Faculty of Engineering workshop, is one of the by-products is an important livestock
Niger Delta University. It’s consists of centrifugal feed ingredient and a good source of calcium for
blower, reciprocating sieves, screw conveyor, separating crops.
cylinder, transmission shaft with rotating speed of 360
rpm, powered by a 5 hp electric motor. The total cost of Globally, rice production is estimated at about 600
constructing the machine is estimated at ₦196,050. The million metric tonnes per annum [8]. The world five
performance evaluation revealed a de-stoning efficiency leading producers of rice are; China (193,354,175
of 78%. This research work has developed a local, cost metric tonnes/ yr), India (148,260,000 metric
effective and efficient rice de-stoning machine, thus tonnes/yr), Indonesia (60,251,072 metric tonnes/yr),
improving the quality and the market value of locally Bangladesh (46,905,000 million metric tonnes/yr),
produced rice in Nigeria. and Viet Nam (38,725,100 million metric tonnes/yr).
The World rice consumption is estimated at 500
million metric tonnes annually, with a population of
Index Terms; Local rice, processing, engineering 6.93 billion,[14]. Across the globe, about 300 million
property, de-stoning machine, Research and metric tonnes of rice is imported annually. Japan is
development. Centrifugal blower, reciprocating sieves, world leading rice importer, with an annual import of
transmission shaft. about 11.89 million metric tonnes per year, [16]-[8].
I. INTRODUCTION In Africa, rice production for the past 50 years has
increased from about 3.14 million metric tonnes, to
Rice is a staple food crop that is cultivated and eating about 14.60 million metric tonnes per year, while rice
in most part of the world. Rice plant is consumption is estimated at about 24.3 million metric
tonnes/yr [8] and about 9.7 million metric tonnes of
Ohwofadjeke, Paul Ogheneochuko. (BSc, M.ENG, MNSE,
rice is imported into Africa annually.
MNIMECH, COREN): Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Niger Delta University, P.M.B. 071,
Specifically, in Nigeria, rice production is currently
Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
estimated at about 3.0 million tonnes per year.
Nigeria has ecologies that are suitable for different

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 International Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences (IJEAS)
ISSN: 2394-3661, Volume-7, Issue-1, January 2020

rice varieties which can be harnessed to boost rice machine that can be used to remove stones/pebbles
production to meet domestic demands and produce a and extraneous materials from our local rice to make
surplus for export [1]. Nigeria has a potential land it safe and attractive for human consumption. The
machine will reduce the labour and efforts involved
area for rice production of between 4.6 million and
in the manual method of separation of the impurities
4.9 million hectares. However, only 1.9 million from rice grains, minimize wastages and improve the
hectares representing about 40 percent of Nigeria's quality of locally produce rice (OFADA rice),
total cultivable land mass is cropped with rice. increase its demand, enhance large scale production
Notwithstanding, this great rice potential, rice and make operational processes more convenient.
production has not kept pace with the rapid growth in However, despite the huge resources, time and efforts
population [4]. that Nigerian government and individuals have
invested results got so far is still below expectation
Rice plants are classified according to ecological rice consumers.
requirements of where they are best grown. The
II. NECESSITY OF THIS RESEARCH
cultivable land for rice is spread over five major
ecologies; upland, inland/shallow swamp, irrigated i. Locally processed rice is not attractive to
rice, deep water/floating rice, and tidal most Nigerian consumers, due to its high
mangrove/swamp. The latter is not fully developed extraneous materials content, which either
because there is a lack of appropriate technology results in out-right rejection, low demand
[13]. Nigeria is the largest producer of rice in West and low pricing compared to imported rice.
ii. In Nigeria presently rice processing is still
Africa; she produces about 50% of the total quantity being manually carried out which makes the
of rice grown in the sub-region. business unattractive to most farmers.
iii. Imported rice de-stoning machines are very
The history of Cereal cleaning is as old as man expensive which is usually beyond the reach
himself. Cereals like maize, rice, sorghum and millet of an average Nigerian farmer.
etc are principal grain crops grown in Nigeria [12]. iv. Foreign rice processing machines are not
Foreign materials get into cereals during harvesting efficient in processing local rice varieties
and transportation. These unwanted materials are cultivated in Nigeria, thereby necessitating
design of a local model.
imposed constraints on grains and must be
significantly reduced for good market value of grains III. OBJECTIVES
and their product. In Nigeria, demand for locally
produced rice is low, this has been attributed to poor The objectives of this research are as follows:
harvesting and post-harvest handling methods which
1. To determine the physio-mechanical properties of
bring about contaminants such as stones, stick, chaff locally produced rice varieties that are relevant to
and leave stalk [11]. Many types of processing the design of an efficient rice de-stoning
equipment have been developed, which are used in machine.
many parts of the world to clean seeds, grains and
beans. In the pre-civilization days, grain cleaning was 2. To design an efficient rice de-stoning machine,
using the physio-mechanical properties
undertaken by manual means, which involves
determined in 1 above as design input,
throwing grains upward against wind direction. This specifically for locally produced rice in Nigeria.
traditional method of winnowing still being
employed by the peasant farmers usually cannot 3. To employ local technology and sourced materials
effectively handle the increased grain production and in constructing a cost effective rice de-stoning
also laborious as well. machine which is affordable to an average
Nigerian peasant farmer.
The poor acceptance of local rice in Nigeria has to do
4. To determine the efficiency of the fabricated
with its processing which introduces stone particles
machine using local rice varieties cultivated in
and pebbles and medical analysts had reiterated so
Nigeria.
many times the danger inherent in its consumption
[2]. As a result of this, there had been several
attempts to design a low cost, efficient and simple

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 International Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences (IJEAS)
ISSN: 2394-3661, Volume-7, Issue-1, January 2020

IV. METHODOLOGY v. Performance evaluation of the fabricated

rice de-stoning machine.
The methodology used for this research included five
major tasks namely: V. DETERMINATION OF THE ENGINEERING
PROPERTIES OF RICE
i. Determination of the engineering
characteristics of five commonly cultivated In order to design an efficient and cost effective rice
local rice varieties that are relevant to de-stoning machine, engineering properties was
design of rice de-stoning machine. determined for five locally cultivated rice varieties
ii. Design of basic components of rice de- these include; length, width and thickness, effective
stoning machine. diameter, Sphericity and Surface area, Bulk density,
iii. Engineering drafting of the components true density, Angle of repose, Coefficient of Static
and sourcing of required materials using 3D Friction and Terminal Velocity of the rice grains.
AutoCAD Software. This investigation was done in Biological material
iv. Construction of rice de-stoning machine Laboratory of Agricultural Engineering department,
using local technology and sourced Niger Delta University. The American Society of
materials. Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) standard of 1993 was
applied in the determination of physio-mechanical
properties of rice [5].

Fig. 1. Rice Processing Flow Chart

VI. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS  The machine should be affordable in terms
of purchase and maintenance cost.
The design considerations include:  The machine should be durable.
 The machine should be safe and simple to  The machine should be able to remove
operate such that local farmers can use it stones and other extraneous materials from
without difficulty.

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 rice efficiently, without damage to rice Speed ratio: 1:4
grains.
Belt type: V- belt (A belt section)
 The machine should be such that its spare
parts will be readily available to farmers  Service Factor = 1.0 (the machine will run
without having to travel long distances. for less than 10 hours per day)
 The energy requirement of the machine  Belt Designed power= 1.0x 1.5 kw =1.5kw
should be minimal.  Section: 80mm and One Step Pulley
 The machine should be such that it can be  Driven Speed: At 1:4 speeds gives 360 rpm
easily moved from one place to another obtainable with the stock pulleys.
 Pulley Diameter: the diameter of small
(should be portable)
pulley (driver) and large pulley (driven) are
 Material selection: materials for construction :
should be selected based on strength, safety d= 100mm
(anti-corrosion characteristics) and
durability. D= 400m

 Centre Distance: is Found using the formula

VII. DESIGN OF SHAKER MECHANISM SHAFT
DIAMETER C=2x D  dxd (2)

The shaker mechanism and fan shaft diameter was

C=2x (400  100) X 100
designed using the ASME (American Society of
Mechanical Engineers) code equation for solid shaft
[6] is given C= 447.2mm

(a) Correction factor = 0.89

D= 16/πSs (K b M b ) 2 + (K t M t ) 2 (1) (b) Number of belt
corrected designed power
´=
D = diameter of shaft (mm) Correction factor
= 1.5 = 1.68 kW
Mb = maximum bending moment Nm 0.89

Mt = Torsional moment Nm One belt will supply 1.68 kW power which is

greater than the corrected designed power (1.5kw);
Ss = allowable shear stress MN/m2 hence a single belt will be sufficient for the shaker
Mechanism. Using the belt catalog, a belt so selected
Kb = combined shock and fatigue factor applied to has the following characteristics;
bending which is 1.5 for gradually applied load [10]. Belt Characteristics;
Kt = combined shock and fatigue factor applied to a  Belt description = A1750
torsional moment, which is 1.0 for gradually applied  Shaker mechanism pulley (driven) =
on rotating shaft [10]. 400mm
 Motor pulley (driver) = 100mm
D = 0.029.9m = 29. 9mm

Use standard commercial shaft of 30mm IX. SHAKER MECHANISM SHAFT KEY DESIGN

i. Steady torque = 1.5 factor of safety [10].

VIII. BELT AND PULLEY DESIGN FOR SHAKER ii. Square key required
MECHANISM

The belt and pulley was designed in accordance with Iii. Shaft diameter = 30mm, radius = 15mm
Fenner industrial Belt Drives manual [7]; Tangential force Torque T= F x r = 1500 x 0.2 =
300Nm using pulley.
Motor power: 2hp= 1.5kw Ss
Ts= x W x L x r = 300Nm (3)
Motor speed: 1440 rpm N

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Where Ts = shearing Stress

Ss =allowable shear stress of 100mpa for mild steel

N = factor of safety = 1.5 for steady torque

W = Width of Key

L = length of hub on Pulley = 0.05m

55 x 106/1.5x W x 0.05 x 0.015 = 300

= 27500 x W = 300

W= = 0.0109m = 10.9mm

27500

Use standard square key of 11mm X 11mm Fig. 2. Orthographic View of Rice destining machine

Sieve Design
The sieve design consists basically of the
determination of diameter of the sieves using the
formula:

(4)

Where, D average effective diameter of rice grains

=3.8 mm; and Co = coefficient of opening (3.5).
Therefore,
Upper Screen diameter d = 3.162 3 mm
Middle screen diameter = 2.5 mm
Lower screen diameter = 2.0 mm

X. DRAFTING Fig.3. Plan of Rice Destoner

The graphical details of the rice de-stoning machine
were drawn using 3D AutoCAD software; as shown
in Figures 2 to 5.

Plate.1. Picture of fabricated rice destining machine

Fig. 4. Front View

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 (13) Labour ---------- 40,000
(14) Spraying/painting ----------- 7,000
(15) Turning of shaft ----------- 5,000
(16) Slotting of keyway ------------ 5,000
(17) Transportation ------------ 10,600
(18) miscellaneous -------------- 15,000
Total Expenditure 196,050
Note; total cost was as at June 2017

XI. FABRICATION OF RICE DE-STONING

MACHINE
The Main operations that were used the
fabrication included;

i. Purchase of Construction materials from,

Fig.5. SE Isometric view of rice destining machine metal market, Yenagoa.
ii. Marking out and cutting of construction
material.
Tab.5. Bill of Engineering Measurement and iii. Machining/machine tool processes.
Evaluation iv. Assembly of fabricated and purchased
S/N Items Qty Price components.
v. Surface finishing.
(N) vi. Painting/Spray painting/ Coating/ Metal
(1) Angle Iron 3 full length 4,750 treatment.
vii. Testing, evaluation, installation and
(2) v-belt 2 4,500 marketing of product(machine)
(3) Friction bearing 6 7800
Table.6. Component part list of designed rice De-
(4) 4mm thick sheet 1 full length 8,900 stoning machine
metal S/N Item Quantity Material
1 Auger 1 Steel plate
(5) ø40mm mild steel 3000mm 4,000 2 Hopper 1 Steel plate
rod length 3 Cylinder 1 Steel plate
4 Electric motor 1 5 hp
(6) 2mmthick stainless 1full length 9,500 5 Motor seat 1 2 by 2 angle
Steel plate iron
6 Frame 1 2 by 2 angle
(7) Ø500mm mild steel 200mm 6,000 iron
rod length 7 Key 6 Mild steel
8 Fan 1 Centrifugal fan
(8) Grinding disk 8 6,000 9 Bearing 7 418
(9) Hack saw cutting 5 2,000 10 Screen 3 Stainless steel
plate
blade 11 Pulley 4 Cast Iron
(10) Pre-design --------- 35,000 12 Belt 2 Leather
investigation
(11) Drafting & printing ---------- 15,000 XII. TESTING
(12) Field trips ----------- 10,000 In order to test the machine, 10 kg of rice paddy,
Kwara,Ogun, and was put into the hopper of the machine at 360 rpm,
data were collected to evaluate its performance.
EkitiStates

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Specification of fabricated machine Naira) or more in the market, as against the imported
model of similar capacity and efficiency which costs
The Specification of fabricated machine several millions of naira, and this is the significance
of the research.
are as follows;

 Model: NDU-Mtech-x Conclusively, the objectives of this research which

 Height: 1050 mm is to “develop a local, cost effective and efficient rice
 Length: 900 mm de-stoning machine " being a local need in Nigeria,
 Width: 375 mm have been fully achieved.
 Overall weight: 235 kg
 Hopper Capacity: 0.600 m3 (10kg) XV. RECOMMENDATIONS
 De-stoning capacity: 300kg/hr (3 tons per
In order to ensure optimum de-stoning efficiency of
day) the machine, the following routine maintenance must
 Power transmission: belt drives, pulleys and be carried out;
shafts i. To undertake all required
 Colour: green adjustments regularly.
 Prime mover required: Electric motor or ii. Ensure proper belt tension at all
petrol engines time.
iii. Ensure that friction bearings are
 Power requirement: 2hp (1.5Kw)
properly lubricated on regular
 Motor speed: 1440 rpm basis.
 Fan: Centrifugal fan iv. Check moving parts for defect and
 Bearing type: No; P206, 30mm diameter replace as and when due.
 Belt: A1250, & A1750 belts v. Remove chaffs and stones from the
converger before starting fresh de-
XIII. DISCUSSION stoning session.
The determined mean terminal velocity for the five vi. Ensure proper feed rate of materials
varieties is 7.4 m/s, which is slightly different from a into the separating cylinder, by
range of between 5.06 to 5.19 m/s, which Adewuni using the feed gate which is located
got in 1996 [3] when he determined the terminal inside the hopper as a control
velocities of some rice varieties grown in the South mechanism.
West of Nigeria.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The imported rice destining machines only remove The Author appreciates the support and mentorship
stones from rice paddy at one stage with one sieve, of Professor Emmanuel Adigio, (Dean Faculty of
this imply that the broken/smaller grains are Engineering, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce
discharged as waste which is a disadvantage to the Island, Bayelsa state, Nigeria.
Farmer. however, this local model destones at three
stages with three sieves, which also separate the rice
grains into different grades base on sizes of grains, by REFERENCES
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 [5] American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE), 1993
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Ohwofadjeke, Paul Ogheneochuko. (BSc, M.ENG, MNSE,

MNIMECH, COREN) Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Niger Delta University, P.M.B. 071,
Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

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