Analyzing the effect of Process Parameters on Amaranth Popping and Puffing in the Lahi Machine using the Taguchi Method

Abstract

Purpose - Amaranth grains are popped by various methods of heating like Oven puffing, Gun puffing, Extrusion puffing, Oil puffing, Pan Popping, etc. Popping of amaranth grains in an oven, gun, extrusion, oil, pan, etc. are having the limitation due to its size, puffing quality, low volume expansion ratio, etc. In this research work the Special Purpose Machine (SPM) with a heating plate was used to pop/puff the amaranth grains. This machine was designed to overcome all the above limitations mentioned earlier. The quality of amaranth grains are depending on temperature, angle, hole size of the nozzle, the material of the heating plate, etc. The impact of these process parameters is analyzed on the Popping Yield (PY), Ratio of Volume Expansion (VER), and Sensory Score (SS) of amaranth grains. The Popping Yield (PY), Ratio of Volume Expansion (VER), and Sensory Score (SS) are major quality parameters of amaranth grains. Therefore these parameters are finalized to carry out further research. The intent of this study is to analyze the more significant process parameters which are impacting PY, VER, and SC. Methodology – The Taguchi approach was adopted for analyzing the impact of process parameters on the quality of Amaranth grains. The Minitab 17 software was used to detect the significant factors. Findings – To identify the significant process parameters the design of the experiment (DOE) has been done. L16 Orthogonal Array (OA) has been obtained to carry out the experimental investigation. It was observed that temperature and material of the heating plate are the more significant parameters on PY, VER, and SS. Through investigation of the S/N ratio and ANOVA, it was detected that the temperature and Material are significant parameters and contributed 29.93%, 44.34%, 49.06%, and 44.58%, 28.73%, 29.33% respectively on Popping Yield, Ratio of Volume Expansion and Sensory Score.