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February 26, 2019

How analysing equipment should be used to increase profit

by Yoshito Matsumoto, Satake Corporation, China

This article explains how rice millers can effectively take advantage of laboratory analysing equipment or apparatus, such as the Milling Meter MM1D, one of the most basic and important pieces of analysing equipment, which will be described in detail later.

Satake strongly believes that smart application of analysing equipment can contribute to improving profit in the milling industry. Unfortunately, Satake has seen too many rice mills wherein analysing equipment were routinely operated incorrectly. Some rice milling facilities do not even possess any analysing tools. In these rice mills, milling machine adjustment can only be done with operators’ knowledge and skills acquired from experience.
 


Furthermore, milling datas including incoming raw materials and final products’ conditionss are often not captured quantitatively as well. Satake would like to propose a potentially lucrative procedure, based on collecting pertinent data from analysing equipment, for competitive advantages.

Satake analysing equipment
First and foremost, rice millers need to recognise the benefits of using analysing equipment . Laboratory equipment is not just tools to measure indices, provided on a QC checklist as routine work, it is directly connected to profit and could be considered a lucrative strategy. Sharing this point of view among managers and operators is the first step towards an effective implementation of analysing equipment. MM1D, for example, measures whiteness/milling degree, but also provides a tool to manage and help achieve a more profitable operation.

MM1D can measure whiteness/milling degree simultaneously for both brown and white rice. The range of whiteness degree is 0-100, where 0 is jet-black and 100 is as white as oxidised magnesium powder. It can determine the rice degree of whiteness. In Japan, whiteness degrees of brown and white rice are approximately 20 and 40 respectively. Please note, whiteness degree fluctuates with rice varieties and grain conditions.

On the other hand, milling degree range is 0 for brown rice and 100 for white rice, with all bran layer and germ removed completely, but leaving starch inside the grains untouched. The milling degree is derived from the measurement of both reflected light from rice and transparent light going through it.

Using a mathematical formula, a curve can be generated to show the relationship between whiteness and milling. It also provides the calculated milling degree that indicates how well the rice is milled.


Read more HERE.
 

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.


For additional daily news from milling around the world: global-milling.com

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