Part I OF I Tamil Nadu.pmd - National Innovation Foundation

PART I : INNOVATIONS FROM TAMIL NADU
10
Dual purpose rotary huller
Hulling is an essential part of food processing, especially in rural India. Unfortunately,
the available mechanical hullers are very expensive and people are often forced to go to
long distances for processing food grains. Manoharan from Madurai has found a lowcost,
easy-to-maintain and operate dual-purpose rotary huller. The huller has six hollow
cylinders with inset plungers, fixed in a triangular shape on each side of a circular disc.
Since the six cylinders are not connected, one can grind six items at the same time. The
hollow tube with the plunger arrangement is designed in such a way that the disc is
equally balanced with the hollow tubes. Therefore minimum power is required to start
and maintain the rotation of the circular disc with tubes.
When the circular disc is rotated, the plungers pulverize
the material put inside the hollow tube. The amount of
heat produced during the process of hulling is reduced
and so the original flavour of the product is maintained.
The rotary huller can be operated manually or by using
electricity.
It can be used to grind herbal and non-herbal products
for medicines, animal waste for producing fertilizers and
also mix and grind various grocery items. He received
support from the Micro Venture Innovation Fund (MVIF)
for developing the rotary huller. He also received the
State award in NIF’s Third National Competition for
Grassroots Innovations and Traditional Knowledge
Practices in 2005.
TAMIL NADU INNOVATES 21
A N Manoharan
Madurai
* Though awarded earlier,
the innovator is a
professional as per the
present rules of NIF, which
were redefined 2003
onwards to specifically
focus on innovations from
the people of unorganised
sector.