LALA: featuring the industry’s first rake unit for paddy pre-cleaning

[caption id="attachment_5887" align="aligncenter" width="1014"] (Left): Bühler‘s LALA installation for the removal of long impurities in freshly harvested paddy. (Right): The industry‘s first rake unit for effective paddy pre-cleaning[/caption]

Bühler’s pick-up paddy cleaner removes long impurities by as much as 80%, while improving safety and boosting staff retention.

London (UK), November 25, 2020. One of the most common challenges facing rice producers 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 expensive 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, eliminating 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 harvested 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 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 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 methods, and allows personnel to be reassigned to less physically intensive tasks. With labor in many rice producing areas becoming 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 popular with customers, who have seen its impact on their processes 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 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.” [caption id="attachment_5888" align="aligncenter" width="1014"] Freshly harvested rice spikes & Traditional rice terraces in South-East-Asia[/caption] Watch the LALA video here. About Bühler Billions of people come into contact with Bühler technologies as they cover their basic needs for food and mobility every day. Two billion people each day enjoy foods produced on Bühler equipment; and one billion people travel in vehicles manufactured using parts produced with Bühler machinery. Countless people wear eyeglasses, use smart phones, and read newspapers and magazines – all of which depend on Bühler process technologies and solutions. Having this global relevance, Bühler is in a unique position to turn today’s global challenges into sustainable business. Bühler contributes to safely feeding the world and is doing its part to protect the climate, producing machinery that makes cars, buildings, and machinery more energy efficient. Its aim is to reduce energy, waste, and water in its customers’ value chains by 50% by 2025. Bühler’s purpose is creating “innovations for a better world.” Bühler invests up to 5% of turnover into research and development. In 2019, some 12,800 employees generated a turnover of CHF 3.3 billion. As a Swiss family-owned company, Bühler is active in 140 countries around the world and operates a global network of 98 service stations, 32 manufacturing sites, and 25 application centers. In 2020, Bühler celebrates its 160th anniversary. –By BUHLER GROUP, www.buhlergroup.com Media contact: Tracey Ibbotson, PR Executive, Bühler UK Limited, London, England, Phone: +44 (0) 1992 537 421. E-mail: tracey.ibbotson@buhlergroup.com Source: Email/SZK