Miller Magazine Issue: 132 December 2020

40 NEWS MILLER / december 2020 Bühler’s pick-up paddy cleaner re- moves long impurities by as much as 80%, while improving safety and boosting staff retention. LALA: Featuring the industry’s first rake unit for paddy pre-cleaning One of the most common challenges facing rice produ- cers is the presence of long impurities in their paddy. Items such as straws and strings from jute bags can frequently clog downstream equipment, leading to unnecessary and expen- sive downtime – and hitting profits hard. With its unique rake unit, Bühler’s LALA pick-up cleaner boosts rice mill capacity by the targeted and effective removal of these impurities, eli- minating up to 80% with ease. After harvesting the paddy is laid out to dry and threshed to separate the grain from the stalk, before being transported to a rice mill for further processing. In less automated mills the workers have to pick out long impurities by hand – a time-consuming but essential process to avoid downstream machines such as dryers and cleaners becoming clogged and the plant’s entire operation grinding to a halt. With the LALA these long impurities are separated from the freshly harves- ted paddy by a vibrating sieve, then picked up by the rake unit. The LALA is also highly effective on wet paddy, with a throughput rate of 25 t/h at a product moisture 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 Buhler 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 cost- ly downtime but enhances the final quality of the rice, and can significantly extend the lifetime of a plant’s equipment as there is far less wear. It also dramatically improves mill safety, as it replaces potentially dangerous alternate working met- hods, and allows personnel to be reassigned to less physically intensive tasks. With labor in many rice producing areas be- coming more expensive as workers increasingly migrate to cities, this helps to retain staff and means even more savings for mill operators. “We are extremely proud of the LALA, with the unrivaled 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.” Since its launch the LALA has been proving hugely popu- lar with customers, who have seen its impact on their pro- cesses first-hand. “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 Mal- pani 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 me- ans increased profitability.” Watch the LALA video here. The industry‘s first rake unit for effective paddy pre-cleaning. Bühler‘s LALA installation for the removal of long impurities in freshly harvested paddy.