Design and Development of Wheat Puffing Machine for Commercial Application

Puffed wheat is a good snack product for Indian people. Puffed wheat snack products available in Karnataka are imported from other parts of India and abroad. The main drawback of puffed wheat is that it loses its crispiness when exposed to air therefore it should be preserved in an air tight container or bag, people don't like to eat Puffed wheat when it's not crispy. As soon as a packet is opened it should immediately be consumed. There is a need to design and develop a wheat puffing machine for commercial applications. This project is an attempt to find a solution to prepare and serve fresh puffed wheat to consumer. The main intent or objective of designing & developing of wheat puffing machine is to serve fresh & crispy.

The puffed wheat machine design process started with primary research and identifying the need. Data collection was carried out by adopting methodologies such as literature review, ethnography research, product study, process study, market study, product environment study. Quality Function Deployment and Product Design Specification were generated based upon data analysis. Concepts were generated with respect to the derived PDS and a final concept was selected by weighted ranking method. The prototype of selected final concept was made and validated with the user group.

The result of validation concluded that the product was better in terms of usability, functionality and cost compared to existing wheat puffing machine in India.