A rice huller or rice husker is an agricultural machine used to automate the process of removing the chaff (the outer husks) of grains of

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

. Throughout history, there have been numerous techniques to hull rice. Traditionally, it would be pounded using some form of mortar and pestle. An early simple machine to do this is a rice pounder. Later even more efficient machinery was developed to hull and polish rice. These machines are most widely developed and used throughout

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, the most popular modern type in use today is the Engelberg huller designed by German Brazilian engineer Evaristo Conrado Engelberg in Brazil and first patented in 1885. The Engelberg huller uses steel rollers to remove the husk. Other types of huller include the disk or ''cono'' huller which uses an abrasive rotating disk to first remove the husk before passing the grain to conical rollers which polish it to make white rice; this is done repeatedly since other sides of circular side of rice are not husked. Rubber rollers may be used to reduce the amount of breakage of the grains, so increasing the yield of the best quality ''head rice'', but the rubber rollers tend to require frequent replacement, which can be a significant drawback.

Sample mechanism for the husk

References

{{Portal bar, Agriculture, Food, Technology Agricultural machinery

Sample mechanism for the husk

See also

References