Claims:1. A continuous flaking machine, comprising of: a base supporting a feeding assembly, a flaking assembly and an outlet assembly over a plurality of mountings, such that the flaking assembly is substantially positioned between the feeding assembly and the outlet assembly for continuous flaking of rice, wherein
the feeding assembly comprising a feeder motor driving an inlet screw conveyor, wherein the inlet screw conveyor is positioned with a hopper at top of one end and an inlet chute at diagonally opposite end to transfer grains from the hopper to the inlet chute;
the flaking assembly comprising a stationary hollow shaft coupled to the inlet screw conveyor, wherein the stationary hollow shaft having a line of equidistant holes on longitudinal surface is mounted with a sieve box assembly, the shaft also has a plurality of flanges mounted at the ends to support plurality of stationary rollers, a hollow drum actuated by means of a flaking motor encircles the plurality of rollers leaving a gap between the rollers and surface of rotating drum forming a working area to perform husking and flaking process; and
the outlet assembly comprising an outlet motor driving an outlet screw conveyor mounted concentrically on the extended stationary shaft, wherein the outlet screw conveyor is a hollow shaft having external screw threads positioned with a flakes collection chamber at one end and an inlet chute at diagonally opposite end to transfer flakes from the flake collection chamber to the outlet chute for collection.
2. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the sieve box assembly is an inclined hollow box, top end covered with a sieve on which vertical flights are arranged at regular interval, and bottom end having plurality of draft tubes fixed to stationary shaft such that the holes on the stationary shaft are aligned with plurality of draft tubes of sieve box assembly.
3. The flaking machine according to claim 2, wherein the sieve box assembly further comprises a scraper mounted near to top edge on the sieve, wherein the scraper is in contact with the drum and extends along its length.
4. The flaking machine according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the sieve box assembly is inclined at an angle of 300 - 500 to vertical axis.
5. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the inlet chute is inclined at an angle of 200 - 400 to vertical axis.
6. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the grains through the inlet chute falls on internal surface of the drum.
7. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the gap between the rollers and the drum surface is in the range of 1 - 5mm.
8. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the drum rotates at a speed range of 300 – 500RPM.
9. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the drum is covered with end plate at one end and a back cover at other end, wherein the end plate has a groove on its circular profile to support belt drive.
10. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the drum positioned on plurality of roller mounts.
11. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of rollers are in cylindrical shape aligned horizontally between the flanges.
12. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the flakes collection chamber is a hollow chamber fixed at the scraper end, receives flakes diverted by the scraper and transfers to outlet screw conveyor. , Description:FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See section 10, rule 13)

“A CONTINUOUS FLAKING MACHINE”
By
Bühler (India) Pvt Ltd,
13-D, KIADB Industrial Area, Attibele - 562 107, Bangalore Dist., Karnataka, India

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a flaking machine, and more particularly to a continuous rice flaking machine that converts hydrothermally treated paddy into rice flakes.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Grain flake especially rice flake is the husked rice which is flattened into flat light dry flakes. Rice flakes are prepared from paddy. It is also known as “Beaten rice” or “Poha” in India. It is the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in south Asia. Since, rice flakes is easily digestible, dishes made of rice flakes are part of daily life in most of the families in India. And flakes are extensively used all over the country round the year. Spicy or sweet preparations made from flakes are not only easy to make but they can be made at a short time. This is a common product, hence bulk of the households stores it on regular basis, with proper storage its shelf life is 2-3 months.
The current industrial production of rice flakes, state-of-the-art involves two steps process: hydro-thermal treatment in a sand roaster which is a continuous process, followed by flaking in an edge runner machine, which is a batch process capable of producing small capacity of flakes every batch. Edge runner machine is a batch production machine usually capable of producing 5kg of flakes every 2 min. This makes necessary to have plurality of edge runners to support the output from the preceding hydrothermal treatment process. Every edge runner machine also requires a person to put paddy in and collect the flakes out. This makes the current production process labor intensive. To load paddy in or take out flakes from the edge runner, operators have to put hands into a rotating drum. This creates an unsafe working condition for the labor. And also, continuous contact of flakes with the operators hands results in poor food safety. Further, the quality of flakes produced depends on the skill of the operator, which results in high variance in quality within a plant.
It is therefore a need in the art for a machine for flaking rice, which can overcome the drawbacks of age old means of flaking.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An objective of the invention aims at providing a novel machine for continuous flaking process, thereby enabling paddy feeding at one end of the machine and flakes collection at the other end of the machine.
Another objective of the invention is to dehusk and flake paddy between horizontal aligned plurality of stationary rollers and rotating drum. And also to separate husk from flakes, employing a sieve box assembly, which is a combination of a scraper, a sieve and a suction system.
Accordingly an aspect of the invention is to provide a rice flaking machine comprising, a base supporting a feeding assembly, a flaking assembly and an outlet assembly over a plurality of mountings, so that the flaking assembly is horizontally positioned between the feeding assembly and the outlet assembly for continuous flaking of grains. The feeding assembly comprising an inlet screw conveyor positioned with a hopper at top of one end and an inlet chute at diagonally opposite end, a feeder motor drives the inlet screw conveyor to transfer grains from the hopper to the inlet chute. The flaking assembly comprising a stationary hollow shaft coupled to the inlet screw conveyor, wherein the stationary hollow shaft having a line of equidistant holes on longitudinal surface is mounted with a sieve box assembly, the shaft also has a plurality of flanges mounted at the ends to support plurality of stationary rollers, a hollow drum actuated by means of a flaking motor encircles the plurality of rollers leaving a gap between the rollers and surface of rotating drum to form a working area to perform husking and flaking process. The outlet assembly comprising an outlet screw conveyor coupled to stationary shaft, positioned with a flakes collection chamber at one end and an outlet chute at diagonally opposite end, an outlet motor drives the outlet screw conveyor continuously to transfer flakes from the flake collection chamber to the outlet chute for collection.
In another aspect of the present invention relates to a sieve box assembly, which is an inclined hollow box, top end covered with a sieve on which vertical flights are arranged at regular interval, and bottom end having plurality of draft tubes fixed to stationary shaft such that the holes on the stationary shaft are aligned with plurality of draft tubes of sieve box assembly.
Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to various embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
Figure 1 is an isometric view illustrating the construction of rice flaking machine suited for use in accordance with the invention.
Figure 2 is a front view illustrating the construction of rice flaking machine suited for use in accordance with the invention;
Figure 3 is a top view illustrating the construction of rice flaking machine suited for use in accordance with the invention;
Figure 4 is a left profile view illustrating the construction of rice flaking machine suited for use in accordance with the invention;
Figure 5 is a right profile view illustrating the construction of rice flaking machine suited for use in accordance with the invention;
Figure 6 is a front view in vertical section of figure 2 and further illustrating the construction of rice flaking machine;
Figure 7 is a partial vertical section of figure 1 depicting the construction of flaking assembly in a rice flaking machine;
Figure 8 is a vertical section of figure 5, depicting the cross section of flaking assembly in a rice flaking machine; and
Figure 9 is a side view of flaking assembly depicting the operation of flaking assembly in a rice flaking machine.
Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a machine for making flakes from ordinary shelled rice also known as paddy. The machine of interest is a continuous flaking machine rotates on its primary axis perpendicular to gravitational vertical, to convert hydrothermally treated paddy into rice flakes.
While flaking of particular grain especially paddy/rice has been shown and described, it will be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. It will be appreciated that flaking of numerous grains is possible within the general principles described about the invention.
Figures 1 – 8 are the various views illustrating the construction of a rice flaking machine suited for use in accordance with the invention. The flaking machine 100 according to the invention consists of a strong base 102 on which mounted are a feeding assembly, a flaking assembly and an outlet assembly, where the flaking assembly is positioned between the feeding assembly and the outlet assembly such that the primary axis is perpendicular to gravitational vertical. And each assembly is mounted on various types of mountings 128 viz., motor mounts 128A, shaft mounts 128B, roller mounts 128C to hold and support.
The feeding assembly includes an inlet screw conveyor 104 having a hopper 106 positioned at top of one end and inlet chute 108 at bottom of diagonally opposite end. A feeder motor 110 mounted on a motor mount 128A drives the inlet screw conveyor 104 mounted on a shaft mount 128B through belt drive arrangement to continuously transfer paddy from hopper 106 to inlet chute 108. The inlet chute 108 can be aligned at an angle 200 to 400 to the inlet screw conveyor axis, however preferable angle is 300.
The flaking assembly includes a stationary hollow shaft 112 having a line of equidistant holes (not shown in figure) made on its longitudinal surface and the shaft 112 is coupled to the inlet screw conveyor 104. An inclined sieve box assembly 118 is fixed on the shaft 112 such that the holes on the shaft are aligned with the sieve box assembly 118. The sieve box assembly is inclined at an angle of 300 - 500 to the vertical axis, and more preferably at an angle of 400 to the vertical axis. Plurality of flanges 114 is fixed at the ends of shaft 112, to support plurality of stationary rollers 116 between them. The rollers 116 are in cylindrical shape aligned horizontally between the flanges 114. A hollow drum 126 positioned on plurality of roller mounts 128C encircles the plurality of rollers 116 leaving a gap. Said hollow drum 126 in its operation freely rotates at a speed range of 300 – 500RPM. The gap between the rollers 116 and surface of rotating drum 126 forms the working area. Usually the working area is in the range of 1 - 5mm depending on the type of grain to be flaked. For, rice flaking gap is 1 - 3mm. The working area can be flexibly adjusted depending upon the type of grains to be flaked. One end of the drum 126 is covered with end plate 130A and the other end with back cover 130B. End plate 130A has a groove on its circular profile to support belt drive for driving the drum 126. A flaking motor 132 mounted on motor mount 128A actuates the drum 126 through pulley and belt drive mechanism to perform husking and flaking process.
The sieve box assembly 118 is an inclined hollow box, top end covered with a sieve 122 on which vertical flights 124 are arranged at regular interval, and bottom end having plurality of draft tubes fixed to stationary shaft such that the holes on the stationary shaft are aligned with plurality of draft tubes of sieve box assembly 118. The flights 124 are inclined vertical channels on the sieve 122 to enable the regulation of paddy/flakes through the sieve 122 and to impart axial movement. Further, a scraper 120 is fixed near to top edge on the sieve 122, where the scraper 120 is in contact with the drum 126 and extends along its length.
Paddy entered the drum 126 through inlet chute 108 passes through the gap between the rotating drum surface 126 and stationary rollers 116 thereby resulting in a gentle husk removal and flaking action. The scraper 120 of the sieve box assembly 118 is in contact with the drum 126 such that the scraper 120 removes the grain of the rotating drum surface 126 and makes it fall on a set of inclined flights 124 that move the paddy forward. The corresponding figure 9 is a side view of flaking assembly depicting the operation of flaking assembly in a rice flaking machine.
The outlet assembly includes an outlet screw conveyor 134, where the screw conveyor 134 is a hollow shaft having screw threads, concentrically mounted on the stationary shaft 112 extending from the flaking assembly. One end of the screw conveyor 134 is positioned with a flakes collection chamber 136 and an outlet chute 138 at the diagonally opposite end. The flakes collection chamber 136 is a hollow chamber fixed at the scraper end and receives diverted flakes by the scraper 120 and allows it to pass through screw conveyor 134 before it is collected at the outlet chute 138. Outlet screw conveyor 134 is actuated by an outlet motor 140 through a belt drive arrangement. Through the hollow space of the stationary shaft 112 powdered husk is removed from the machine 100, routed through a suction tube.
The hydro-thermally treated paddy fed into the hopper 106 is transferred to rotating drum 126 through inlet screw conveyor 104 via inlet chute 108. The paddy inside the drum 126 attains the velocity of the drum surface and passes through the working area, thereby resulting in a gentle husk removal, and flaking action. Paddy after passing through the gap is a mixture of paddy, semi flaked rice, and husk (broken and powder). The axially mounted scraper 120 part of the sieve assembly 118 diverts mixture on the inclined sieve 122 with flights 124, where mixture flows down due to gravity before re-joining the stream of rotating mixture on the surface of drum 126. The flights 124 push the mixture forward as it travels down the sieve surface 122, where the powdered husk gets separated from the rest of the mixture. An airstream flowing through the sieve 122 aids this process and also carries the husk powder outside the machine 100 through passage. The mixture undergoes repeated cycles between roller 116 and drum 126 gap before the flakes take their final shape and the husk is fully separated. Usually, husk is first separated from the rice kernel after the first few cycles and powdered after a few more cycles. On average a paddy grain undergoes 200 – 300 cycles before it is removed from the rotating drum 126. For each of the cycle mixture gets pushed a little axially, eventually conveying it outside the drum 126. After these many cycles, the scraper 120 scrapes of the flakes from the drum surface 126 and makes it to fall on the collection chamber 136. The collection chamber 136 discharges the flakes on the outlet screw conveyor 134 which transports the flakes for collection and storage through outlet chute 138. The powdered husk continuously sucked through the passage is collected in a dust collection system.
The axial transport of paddy in the rotating drum 126 is because of the combined effect of axial inertia of the paddy entering into the drum 126 and the effect of new paddy grains pushing the paddy already in the drum 126 forward. The grains are also guided forward by the scraper 120 and the flight 124 arrangement. The scraper 120 diverts the paddy of the rotating drum surface 126 and makes it to fall on a set of inclined flights 124 that moves the paddy forward. This precise control of the grain motion from one end of the drum 126 to another enables the regulation of paddy/flakes flow to achieve continuous production.
Such arrangement of flaking machine is simple in construction, easy to produce continuous production at higher production rate. It improves food safety standards due to minimal human intervention during the flaking process. And also it gives more consistent product quality because of the removal of variance of operator skill in the process. Further, it reduces process time and improves operating conditions and also minimizes labor and thus overall operational costs during the flaking process.
The foregoing description is a specific embodiment of the present invention. It should be appreciated that this embodiment is described for purpose of illustration only. It is evident to those skilled in the art that although the invention herein is described in terms of specific embodiments thereof, there exist numerous alternatives, modifications and variations of the invention. It is intended that all such modifications and alterations be included insofar as they come within the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed or the equivalents thereof. Hence all variations, modifications and alternatives that falls within the broad scope of the appended claims comes under the gamut of the invention.

I/we claim,
1. A continuous flaking machine, comprising of: a base supporting a feeding assembly, a flaking assembly and an outlet assembly over a plurality of mountings, such that the flaking assembly is substantially positioned between the feeding assembly and the outlet assembly for continuous flaking of rice, wherein
the feeding assembly comprising a feeder motor driving an inlet screw conveyor, wherein the inlet screw conveyor is positioned with a hopper at top of one end and an inlet chute at diagonally opposite end to transfer grains from the hopper to the inlet chute;
the flaking assembly comprising a stationary hollow shaft coupled to the inlet screw conveyor, wherein the stationary hollow shaft having a line of equidistant holes on longitudinal surface is mounted with a sieve box assembly, the shaft also has a plurality of flanges mounted at the ends to support plurality of stationary rollers, a hollow drum actuated by means of a flaking motor encircles the plurality of rollers leaving a gap between the rollers and surface of rotating drum forming a working area to perform husking and flaking process; and
the outlet assembly comprising an outlet motor driving an outlet screw conveyor mounted concentrically on the extended stationary shaft, wherein the outlet screw conveyor is a hollow shaft having external screw threads positioned with a flakes collection chamber at one end and an inlet chute at diagonally opposite end to transfer flakes from the flake collection chamber to the outlet chute for collection.
2. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the sieve box assembly is an inclined hollow box, top end covered with a sieve on which vertical flights are arranged at regular interval, and bottom end having plurality of draft tubes fixed to stationary shaft such that the holes on the stationary shaft are aligned with plurality of draft tubes of sieve box assembly.
3. The flaking machine according to claim 2, wherein the sieve box assembly further comprises a scraper mounted near to top edge on the sieve, wherein the scraper is in contact with the drum and extends along its length.
4. The flaking machine according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the sieve box assembly is inclined at an angle of 300 - 500 to vertical axis.
5. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the inlet chute is inclined at an angle of 200 - 400 to vertical axis.
6. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the grains through the inlet chute falls on internal surface of the drum.
7. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the gap between the rollers and the drum surface is in the range of 1 - 5mm.
8. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the drum rotates at a speed range of 300 – 500RPM.
9. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the drum is covered with end plate at one end and a back cover at other end, wherein the end plate has a groove on its circular profile to support belt drive.
10. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the drum positioned on plurality of roller mounts.
11. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of rollers are in cylindrical shape aligned horizontally between the flanges.
12. The flaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the flakes collection chamber is a hollow chamber fixed at the scraper end, receives flakes diverted by the scraper and transfers to outlet screw conveyor.

ABSTRACT
Title: A continuous flaking machine
The present invention relates to a continuous flaking machine that converts hydrothermally treated paddy into rice flakes. The flaking machine according to the invention consists of a strong base on which mounted are the feeding assembly, flaking assembly and outlet assembly. Hydro-thermally treated paddy is fed into the rotating drum through feeding assembly. The paddy inside the drum passes through the working area, thereby resulting in husk removal, and flaking action. The axially mounted scraper part of the sieve assembly diverts paddy mixture on the inclined sieve with flights. The flights push the mixture forward as it travels down the sieve surface, where the powdered husk gets separated from the rest of the mixture. The mixture undergoes repeated cycles between roller and drum gap before the flakes take their final shape to move out of outlet assembly.
Figure 1 (for publication)