Multipurpose Food processing machine
http://www.nif.org.in/bd/upload/innovator_profile_pdf/dharamvee_kamboj.pdf
Dharamveer Kamboj
Yamunanagar, Haryana
Sangharsh hi sabse badi kaamyaabi hai. Agar badhna hai to peeche
mud kar nahi dekhna hai.
(The capacity to struggle itself is a big effort. There
is no looking back, if one has to keep on moving forward)
A multipurpose food processing machi
ne that facilitates on-farm processing
or herbs, flowers and fruits has been
developed by Dharamveer Kamboj (45), a farmer, herbalist and an innovator.
The youngest among five siblings, Dharamveer was born
on 15 May 1963 at village Damla to Ramswaroop Kamboj and
Savitri Devi. His father was a farmer and, along with agric
ulture, also operated a small flour mill and jaggery processing
plant. Dharamveer used to assist his father sometimes. Hi
s mother was herbalist, with whom he was extremely close.
He would often accompany his mother for collecting
kesu (
Butea monosperma
) flowers, watching how those flowers
were taken care of and made into colours for Holi. Unfortunat
ely he lost his mother in childhood, but inherited from her,
curiosity for nature and its herbal wealth.
Restless and inquisitive as a child, he had a special liking for water and used to play near wells and lakes catching frogs
and snails. Not much interested in studies, he used to spend
time bullying other children or making something or the
other. While in class 7th, he used to make small heaters from old tin cans and coils and sell them for 15 Rs. All the while,
his interest in herbs never subsided. He also used to read
the biographies of successful people as he found them quite
inspiring. The one he specially recalls is that of Abraham Lincoln.
In 1980, a saint visited their village. During the discussions he
told him about the medicinal values of various herbs. He
got curious and asked him if anyone can earn a good living by
cultivating herbs to which the
saint replied in affirmative.
The words encouraged him and whenever opportunity came, he dedicated himself to know more and more about the
herbs, their plantation and business. He earned his livelihood
by farming on two acres of land, held jointly with his
brothers.
He got married to Shyamudevi in 1986. But just after three
days of his daughter’s birth in December, after an altercation
with his father, he had to leave for Delhi in search of bette
r means of income. He started earning working as a rickshaw
puller. He used to ferry traders to Khari
Baoli area of Old Delhi, where they us
ed to pay hefty amount for herbs. This
amazed him and he would often converse with the passenger
s and vendors to know about the herbs and the income
they could fetch. His passion for herbs was
revived. Unfortunately his stay at Delhi had to be cut short as he met with an
accident in 1987. Severely injured, he was brought back to
village and it took a year to nurse him back to health.
After his recovery, he joined the village
development society an
d went for a training programme
in improving
agricultural
practices and organic farming techniques. During the six mont
hs of the program, he interacted with different farmers
and experts in the agricultural sector and gained much know
ledge. Subsequently, he began his work as an organic
farmer and started conducting various experiments.
In 1990, he became the first farmer in his area to cultivate
hybrid tomatoes and generate record production. He also
developed some innovative devices
viz.
battery operated spraying machine using a tape recorder motor and an insect
trapping device. He also tried new cropping patterns by cult
ivating coriander, bottle gourd and sugarcane at the same time. For the same he also developed a farm implement
customized for ploughing without disturbing the sugarcane
crop. 1991 onwards he slowly diversified into gr
owing mushrooms, strawberries and baby corn.
Once, while waiting for his train at Saharanpur railway stat
ion in UP, he observed a sweeper cleaning the platform with
his broom. Same year plague had spread in Surat killing
many, the reason for which wa
s unhygienic conditions. He
contemplated that while many manual systems had got effi
cient and user friendly over time with technological
advancement (such as the pen being replaced by the ty
pewriter and then the computer), but the broom remained
unchanged. He then decided to build a machine to make the sweeper’s job easier. After spending around a month in
development, he built a device to autom
ate the sweeping operation and fitted
an old auto engine with components and
brushes. This machine, costing less than Rs 8000 became
so popular that people from
nearby places started visiting
him to see the demonstration. Irritated,
he finally disassembled the machine.
Subsequently, with the machine
that he built for processing
Aloe vera
and
amla
, he expanded his business
manufacturing and supplying plant extracts gels, essence and herbal product mix.
Genesis of innovation
It was in the year 2002 a bank manage
r came to their village promoting
Aloe vera
farming. He also discussed with
Dharamveer about the
Aloe vera
gel extractor machine. However, owing to the high cost of machine and the
consultation charges, he decided to develop one on his ow
n. In 2003 he started the initial work of designing the
machine and in April 2004 handed over the final design to a
local fabricator, Vijay Dhiman at Jagadhari who completed
the first prototype in March 2005. During
the process of building the machine also, there were certain changes made by
Dharamveer. The fabricator also did not have much i
dea about what he was making. When the machine finally
completed and Dharamveer gave him a demonstra
tion, he realised what he had fabricated.
In December 2004, Dharamveer also
got an opportunity to visit various
Aloe vera
and
Amla
processing units in
Rajasthan along with other farmers. This was facilitated by
the Department of Horticulture, Haryana government. This
experience made him understand the processing methodology better.
The first prototype had a problem of over heating when the mate
rial to be processed was less. He tried to improve but
could not eliminate the problem in the se
cond prototype. In the third one, he
introduced castor oil bath, which could
maintain the temperature till 200° C.
This prototype was bought
by GIAN North and send to Kenya on a pilot basis.
Based on the feedback, GIAN asked him to modify it further incorporating provisions that would make it easily
transportable, including making the legs foldable. In the fourth machine, he also incorporated a sieve to manage the
flow of
amla
. In subsequent models he plans to add temperature and pressure gauzes.
Innovation
This machine is a multipurpose device capable of pulve
rizing and extracting oil/gel from various herbs.
The machine is a vertical free-standing cylindrical unit mount
ed on four legs. The raw material is fed from the top and
the processed output can be colle
cted at the bottom. The machine consists of an autoclave unit for sterilization, a boiler
unit for boiling, the extractor unit for extracting juice or
gel, a drive means for a source
of power attached to the
apparatus. The extractor unit comprises one frame, one conden
ser with flexible coolant, a set of blades connected o the
frame and a grinding system. The main chamber is enclosed
with an oil jacket to avoid direct heating of the herbs.
First the leaves of the
Aloe vera
are washed, then they are individually peel
ed and skin is removed. The peeled skin is
kept separately for secondary
processing to generate the essence and gel.
The jelly portion inside is washed separately
and put into the boiler. The motor is switched ON for running
of grinder arranged inside boiler. The boiler is then heated
with the help of burner/heater upto 50
-60 deg. This is done for about 10 minut
es to prepare the juice. Then the
Aloe
vera
juice is extracted from the main outlet
which is fitted with an inbuilt filter.
For the secondary process of extracting t
he essence, the removed skin along with
some portion of the jelly is washed
and put into the boiler along with equal amount of water and
is stirred and boiled to over 100 deg. The steam produced
during heating is condensed with the help of condenser for pr
oducing the essence. The essence collected is mixed with
specific quantity of Gelatin powder to form the gel.
To produce juice from plants or fruits, the heating is not done and once material is fed into the shell, the grinder is
turned ON and the pulverizing, crushing and mixing produces t
he juice. The grinding unit is utilized primarily when the
processing of dry fruits or spices is required.
The temperature and pressure can be set manually using the gauges based on the raw material and desired product
outcome. It can also be used for ancillary functions including
boiling, sterilization (autoclaving), pulverizing, mixing of
produce such as
amla, saunf, mushroom and orange.
The unit can process 100 kilograms of
Aloe vera
in an hour. About 1.25 kilograms of
Aloe vera
leaves are converted to
1 liter of gel in the unit.
Innovativeness
The prior art describes machines wherein the
Aloe vera
gel is extracted by way of squeezing the
Aloe vera
leaves,
generally between roller pair or other pressing arrangements.
There are dedicated machines which do activities
including washing, trimming, positioning, and peeling and squeezing of the leaves.
However, no single equipment could be found in prior art, whic
h performed multipurpose activities such as extraction,
pulverization, mixing and grinding the materials. This machine
also acts as a boiler, sterilizer and cooker besides being
used to extract the juice or essence from various plants or parts thereof. Interestingly, the machine also allows the
operator to use heating as an option and not deploy it if onl
y pulverizing and grinding is required for certain produce
types. As compared to available options, this machine is co
st effective, portable and suitabl
e for on-farm processing. It
can also be operated by an unskilled worker
and be used to process a variety of herbs.
Applications and Dispersion
Being a versatile unit, the machine is used differently for va
rious types of produce. The device effectively provides a
method for sterilizing, boiling and extracting gel from within the fibrous husks of harvested
Aloe vera
leaves, flowers,
herbs, fruits, vegetables, groundnut, spices and other materials.
The complete specification for patenting the design was file
d in February, 2009 in Dharamveer’s name. Funding to the
tune of Rs 2.8 lakh under the HDFC revolving fund scheme wa
s provided by GIAN- North in the year 2008 to him to
manufacture and sell a few units. Costing Rs 1.20 lakh
apiece, he has sold more than 7 units in Haryana and
neighboring states under the brand name of Prince, which
is his son’s name. He has also been supported under the
Micro Venture Innovation Fund (MVIF) fo
r prototype development and
test marketing. Having obtained the FPO license
(A73) for the products obtained using the machine, he earns
his livelihood by making and selling value added products from different herbs, fruits and vegetable. He has given em
ployment to over two dozen ladies in his manufacturing
setup.
His innovative work has been covered in
many regional newspapers. Recently,
The Hindu newspaper also carried an
article on his multi-purpose machine.
Future Aspirations
Dharamveer wants to develop a farm where he will grow, pr
ocess and sell the herbs. Presently, he lives with his wife
and children on the outskirts of the village
near his two acres of land. His family
was a great support when he decided to
start his own enterprise of agro foods and organic farming. His wife always supported and motivated him in difficult
times. She single handedly looked after the family so that
he could continue to pursue his innovations. She was
apprehensive in the beginning, worrying about
the expenses of education and innov
ation. But she gave up her worries
to let him pursue his passion. Pooja, his daughter, doing
her masters in business adminis
tration, recounts how their
neighbours made fun of her father, calling him insane. But now
they consider him a worthy example for all. She along
with her brother, doing computer engineering, helps him with technical tasks.
Dharamveer gives the credit for his achievements to his moth
er who instilled in him the ur
ge to know more about herbs
and their uses. He is also very appreciable of the efforts of GIAN North and NIF in supporting him. The only thing that
Dharamveer regrets is that his parents are not around to se
e his success. His mother had inculcated love for herbs in
him; his father had listened with him the insults and had borne with him the rejections.
http://www.nif.org.in/bd/upload/innovator_profile_pdf/dharamvee_kamboj.pdf
Dharamveer Kamboj
Yamunanagar, Haryana
Sangharsh hi sabse badi kaamyaabi hai. Agar badhna hai to peeche
mud kar nahi dekhna hai.
(The capacity to struggle itself is a big effort. There
is no looking back, if one has to keep on moving forward)
A multipurpose food processing machi
ne that facilitates on-farm processing
or herbs, flowers and fruits has been
developed by Dharamveer Kamboj (45), a farmer, herbalist and an innovator.
The youngest among five siblings, Dharamveer was born
on 15 May 1963 at village Damla to Ramswaroop Kamboj and
Savitri Devi. His father was a farmer and, along with agric
ulture, also operated a small flour mill and jaggery processing
plant. Dharamveer used to assist his father sometimes. Hi
s mother was herbalist, with whom he was extremely close.
He would often accompany his mother for collecting
kesu (
Butea monosperma
) flowers, watching how those flowers
were taken care of and made into colours for Holi. Unfortunat
ely he lost his mother in childhood, but inherited from her,
curiosity for nature and its herbal wealth.
Restless and inquisitive as a child, he had a special liking for water and used to play near wells and lakes catching frogs
and snails. Not much interested in studies, he used to spend
time bullying other children or making something or the
other. While in class 7th, he used to make small heaters from old tin cans and coils and sell them for 15 Rs. All the while,
his interest in herbs never subsided. He also used to read
the biographies of successful people as he found them quite
inspiring. The one he specially recalls is that of Abraham Lincoln.
In 1980, a saint visited their village. During the discussions he
told him about the medicinal values of various herbs. He
got curious and asked him if anyone can earn a good living by
cultivating herbs to which the
saint replied in affirmative.
The words encouraged him and whenever opportunity came, he dedicated himself to know more and more about the
herbs, their plantation and business. He earned his livelihood
by farming on two acres of land, held jointly with his
brothers.
He got married to Shyamudevi in 1986. But just after three
days of his daughter’s birth in December, after an altercation
with his father, he had to leave for Delhi in search of bette
r means of income. He started earning working as a rickshaw
puller. He used to ferry traders to Khari
Baoli area of Old Delhi, where they us
ed to pay hefty amount for herbs. This
amazed him and he would often converse with the passenger
s and vendors to know about the herbs and the income
they could fetch. His passion for herbs was
revived. Unfortunately his stay at Delhi had to be cut short as he met with an
accident in 1987. Severely injured, he was brought back to
village and it took a year to nurse him back to health.
After his recovery, he joined the village
development society an
d went for a training programme
in improving
agricultural
practices and organic farming techniques. During the six mont
hs of the program, he interacted with different farmers
and experts in the agricultural sector and gained much know
ledge. Subsequently, he began his work as an organic
farmer and started conducting various experiments.
In 1990, he became the first farmer in his area to cultivate
hybrid tomatoes and generate record production. He also
developed some innovative devices
viz.
battery operated spraying machine using a tape recorder motor and an insect
trapping device. He also tried new cropping patterns by cult
ivating coriander, bottle gourd and sugarcane at the same time. For the same he also developed a farm implement
customized for ploughing without disturbing the sugarcane
crop. 1991 onwards he slowly diversified into gr
owing mushrooms, strawberries and baby corn.
Once, while waiting for his train at Saharanpur railway stat
ion in UP, he observed a sweeper cleaning the platform with
his broom. Same year plague had spread in Surat killing
many, the reason for which wa
s unhygienic conditions. He
contemplated that while many manual systems had got effi
cient and user friendly over time with technological
advancement (such as the pen being replaced by the ty
pewriter and then the computer), but the broom remained
unchanged. He then decided to build a machine to make the sweeper’s job easier. After spending around a month in
development, he built a device to autom
ate the sweeping operation and fitted
an old auto engine with components and
brushes. This machine, costing less than Rs 8000 became
so popular that people from
nearby places started visiting
him to see the demonstration. Irritated,
he finally disassembled the machine.
Subsequently, with the machine
that he built for processing
Aloe vera
and
amla
, he expanded his business
manufacturing and supplying plant extracts gels, essence and herbal product mix.
Genesis of innovation
It was in the year 2002 a bank manage
r came to their village promoting
Aloe vera
farming. He also discussed with
Dharamveer about the
Aloe vera
gel extractor machine. However, owing to the high cost of machine and the
consultation charges, he decided to develop one on his ow
n. In 2003 he started the initial work of designing the
machine and in April 2004 handed over the final design to a
local fabricator, Vijay Dhiman at Jagadhari who completed
the first prototype in March 2005. During
the process of building the machine also, there were certain changes made by
Dharamveer. The fabricator also did not have much i
dea about what he was making. When the machine finally
completed and Dharamveer gave him a demonstra
tion, he realised what he had fabricated.
In December 2004, Dharamveer also
got an opportunity to visit various
Aloe vera
and
Amla
processing units in
Rajasthan along with other farmers. This was facilitated by
the Department of Horticulture, Haryana government. This
experience made him understand the processing methodology better.
The first prototype had a problem of over heating when the mate
rial to be processed was less. He tried to improve but
could not eliminate the problem in the se
cond prototype. In the third one, he
introduced castor oil bath, which could
maintain the temperature till 200° C.
This prototype was bought
by GIAN North and send to Kenya on a pilot basis.
Based on the feedback, GIAN asked him to modify it further incorporating provisions that would make it easily
transportable, including making the legs foldable. In the fourth machine, he also incorporated a sieve to manage the
flow of
amla
. In subsequent models he plans to add temperature and pressure gauzes.
Innovation
This machine is a multipurpose device capable of pulve
rizing and extracting oil/gel from various herbs.
The machine is a vertical free-standing cylindrical unit mount
ed on four legs. The raw material is fed from the top and
the processed output can be colle
cted at the bottom. The machine consists of an autoclave unit for sterilization, a boiler
unit for boiling, the extractor unit for extracting juice or
gel, a drive means for a source
of power attached to the
apparatus. The extractor unit comprises one frame, one conden
ser with flexible coolant, a set of blades connected o the
frame and a grinding system. The main chamber is enclosed
with an oil jacket to avoid direct heating of the herbs.
First the leaves of the
Aloe vera
are washed, then they are individually peel
ed and skin is removed. The peeled skin is
kept separately for secondary
processing to generate the essence and gel.
The jelly portion inside is washed separately
and put into the boiler. The motor is switched ON for running
of grinder arranged inside boiler. The boiler is then heated
with the help of burner/heater upto 50
-60 deg. This is done for about 10 minut
es to prepare the juice. Then the
Aloe
vera
juice is extracted from the main outlet
which is fitted with an inbuilt filter.
For the secondary process of extracting t
he essence, the removed skin along with
some portion of the jelly is washed
and put into the boiler along with equal amount of water and
is stirred and boiled to over 100 deg. The steam produced
during heating is condensed with the help of condenser for pr
oducing the essence. The essence collected is mixed with
specific quantity of Gelatin powder to form the gel.
To produce juice from plants or fruits, the heating is not done and once material is fed into the shell, the grinder is
turned ON and the pulverizing, crushing and mixing produces t
he juice. The grinding unit is utilized primarily when the
processing of dry fruits or spices is required.
The temperature and pressure can be set manually using the gauges based on the raw material and desired product
outcome. It can also be used for ancillary functions including
boiling, sterilization (autoclaving), pulverizing, mixing of
produce such as
amla, saunf, mushroom and orange.
The unit can process 100 kilograms of
Aloe vera
in an hour. About 1.25 kilograms of
Aloe vera
leaves are converted to
1 liter of gel in the unit.
Innovativeness
The prior art describes machines wherein the
Aloe vera
gel is extracted by way of squeezing the
Aloe vera
leaves,
generally between roller pair or other pressing arrangements.
There are dedicated machines which do activities
including washing, trimming, positioning, and peeling and squeezing of the leaves.
However, no single equipment could be found in prior art, whic
h performed multipurpose activities such as extraction,
pulverization, mixing and grinding the materials. This machine
also acts as a boiler, sterilizer and cooker besides being
used to extract the juice or essence from various plants or parts thereof. Interestingly, the machine also allows the
operator to use heating as an option and not deploy it if onl
y pulverizing and grinding is required for certain produce
types. As compared to available options, this machine is co
st effective, portable and suitabl
e for on-farm processing. It
can also be operated by an unskilled worker
and be used to process a variety of herbs.
Applications and Dispersion
Being a versatile unit, the machine is used differently for va
rious types of produce. The device effectively provides a
method for sterilizing, boiling and extracting gel from within the fibrous husks of harvested
Aloe vera
leaves, flowers,
herbs, fruits, vegetables, groundnut, spices and other materials.
The complete specification for patenting the design was file
d in February, 2009 in Dharamveer’s name. Funding to the
tune of Rs 2.8 lakh under the HDFC revolving fund scheme wa
s provided by GIAN- North in the year 2008 to him to
manufacture and sell a few units. Costing Rs 1.20 lakh
apiece, he has sold more than 7 units in Haryana and
neighboring states under the brand name of Prince, which
is his son’s name. He has also been supported under the
Micro Venture Innovation Fund (MVIF) fo
r prototype development and
test marketing. Having obtained the FPO license
(A73) for the products obtained using the machine, he earns
his livelihood by making and selling value added products from different herbs, fruits and vegetable. He has given em
ployment to over two dozen ladies in his manufacturing
setup.
His innovative work has been covered in
many regional newspapers. Recently,
The Hindu newspaper also carried an
article on his multi-purpose machine.
Future Aspirations
Dharamveer wants to develop a farm where he will grow, pr
ocess and sell the herbs. Presently, he lives with his wife
and children on the outskirts of the village
near his two acres of land. His family
was a great support when he decided to
start his own enterprise of agro foods and organic farming. His wife always supported and motivated him in difficult
times. She single handedly looked after the family so that
he could continue to pursue his innovations. She was
apprehensive in the beginning, worrying about
the expenses of education and innov
ation. But she gave up her worries
to let him pursue his passion. Pooja, his daughter, doing
her masters in business adminis
tration, recounts how their
neighbours made fun of her father, calling him insane. But now
they consider him a worthy example for all. She along
with her brother, doing computer engineering, helps him with technical tasks.
Dharamveer gives the credit for his achievements to his moth
er who instilled in him the ur
ge to know more about herbs
and their uses. He is also very appreciable of the efforts of GIAN North and NIF in supporting him. The only thing that
Dharamveer regrets is that his parents are not around to se
e his success. His mother had inculcated love for herbs in
him; his father had listened with him the insults and had borne with him the rejections.
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