Posted by Classifier Milling Systems on | Comments Off on Choosing the Right Milling Machine for Your Needs
The right milling equipment makes all the difference in your material size-reducing operations. Different milling machine types offer advantages like greater particle size reduction and portability. By comparing milling machines, you can select one that will optimize your productivity, product quality, and cost-effectiveness. Use this milling equipment comparison guide to inform your search.
Milling Equipment
Particle size reduction is the process of reducing the particle size of feed materials to powder or granular form. In other words, it increases the surface area of the processed materials. Most dry powder production is performed by air-classifying mills, hammer mills, jet mills, and pin mills. These four mills use attrition, dynamic impact, and shearing to break down feed material. Media mills use compression principles to achieve particle size reduction.
Choose between these particle size reduction mills based on your application’s ideal particle size distribution curve and the structure or morphology of your raw material. Material structure can include the following aspects:
Abrasiveness
Absorption characteristics and moisture content
Aspect ratio
Bulk density
Explosiveness
Flow properties
Friability
Hardness
Melt point and thermal sensitivity
Stickiness
Tensile and compression strength
Toxicity
Air Swept Classifier Mill Systems
Air-swept classifier mills perform particle size classification and dynamic-impact grinding in one continuous process. The operator can adjust the rotational speeds of the impact rotor and classifier wheel independently to control drag and tip speed, producing the required particle size distribution. These mills come in a wide range of sizes and power options, from 1 HP to 600 HP.
Cyclones and Cyclone Classifiers
Our high-performance cyclones are built from specialty alloys or refractory-lined, heavy-walled, pressure shock resistant (PSR) materials. Cyclone units work well in challenging environments with abrasive input feed material, corrosive gases, and extreme temperatures. Some of the most common process materials for cyclones are:
Bauxite
Cement
Gypsum
Limestone
Pigments
Powder coating materials
Resins
Tabletop Lab Systems
Tabletop systems offer more portability. Common applications include batch testing and product development rather than high-volume production. Our tabletop systems have a protective clamshell exterior and side-mounted control panels that make cleaning simple. These compact systems are energy-efficient and capable of continuous 50-pound batch testing or up to 150 pounds per hour.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Milling Equipment
Once you have a working understanding of different milling machine types, the next step is understanding your organization’s unique needs. Keep these factors in mind as you select your new milling equipment:
Precision. Consider how precisely the equipment can produce particle sizes within tight tolerances.
Power. Choose a machine with sufficient motor capacity to process continuous input.
Speed. Select equipment that can keep up with your desired speed of production.
Versatility. Find a mill that can meet all of your facility’s processing needs.
Flexibility. Consider whether you need equipment that can adapt to different input material sizes and morphologies.
Milling Equipment From Classifier Milling Systems (CMS)
Classifier Milling Systems (CMS) is a leading provider of high-performance milling machines. We are a full-service designer and OEM manufacturer of particle size reduction machinery. Fortune 500 companies and industry-leading global businesses trust our particle size reduction equipment for their superior performance across diverse applications.
Our team of mill engineers can develop the ideal milling solutions for your needs. We produce equipment that can process these and many other types of materials:
Abrasives
Air quality control systems
Basic materials
Environmental materials
Food and agriculture
Industrial carbons
Industrial chemicals
Metallurgical
Minerals
Petrochemicals
Pharmaceutical and nutraceutical
Powder coatings
Refractories
Waste mineral recoveries
Choosing the right milling equipment is easier with support from CMS. We provide comprehensive design, engineering, and manufacturing services so your operations have exactly the right unit for the job. Contact us today to learn more about our milling machines, or request a quote for a custom solution.
Milling machines have served as some of the most dependable industrial machining solutions over the centuries because of their superior efficiency and quality. They work for particle size reduction systems and more, with recent innovations and trends making them more reliable than ever. The following are some of the key trends and solutions that are revolutionizing milling systems today.
Future Trends for Milling Technology
Innovations in milling equipment in the last 30 years or so have focused primarily on improving overall mill performance. These efforts revolve around saving energy, increasing safety for products and employees, and optimizing efficiency, with each of these seeing a steady increase in demand across markets.
Efficiency Boost, Energy Savings, Employee Safety
Advancements in milling technology revolve around three key principles:
Increasing efficiency and productivity. Developments in milling will optimize output while keeping operations consistent, with precision engineering enabling the development of uniform particle sizes. Meanwhile, fully integrated data analytics will help assess overall production efficiency.
Sustainability. Innovations like advanced cooling and highly efficient motor designs minimize wasted energy, while sustainable designs further reduce production expenses.
Improving safety and workplace conditions. Developments in safety features keep workers more consistently safe. At the same time, material handling automation reduces the need for manual work to lower the risk of injuries even more.
Milling Equipment From CMS
As a reputable OEM manufacturer and design engineer, Classifier Milling Systems provides industrial and environmental materials size-reduction milling systems for clients requiring efficiency and accuracy. Over the years, CMS has developed solutions for processing challenges across a range of industries and material types, with over 30 years of engineering and manufacturing experience.
To meet our customers’ requirements for size-reduction milling, we offer the following pieces of equipment:
Air Swept Classifier System:
Functionality: This system integrates both particle size classification and dynamic-impact grinding in one continuous process.
Power Range: Ranges from 5 horsepower (hp) to 400hp, which suggests scalability for various production needs.
Application: Ideal for continuous size reduction, it allows for a more efficient and streamlined processing.
Tabletop Mill:
Functionality: This is a smaller, 5hp system that offers both particle size reduction and classifying capabilities. It’s perfect for testing and small-scale production.
Ideal Use: It’s commonly used in product development or testing small material batches, making it a great choice for labs or pilot-scale production.
Both systems are designed to handle different scales of operation but serve similar functions by reducing particle size while classifying the material. If you’re looking at a system for product development or scaling up production, these systems offer flexibility for both small and large batch processing.
Cyclones and cyclone classifiers. We offer refractory-lined cyclones and cyclone classifiers made with special alloys, along with other unique designs to meet each application’s needs.
Modern Milling Systems From Classifier Milling Systems
For more than 30 years, Classifier Milling Systems has developed into a top provider of high-quality milling systems, with a selection of reliable milling equipment that enables us to address nearly any type of particle reduction issues our customers might face. Backing our solutions is a team of knowledgeable and experienced experts dedicated to giving each customer the right products to meet their needs and overcome their specific challenges, keeping up with the latest and continuing trends in the milling industry.
Read more about us to discover what we can do for your application, or browse our selection of equipment to find the perfect solution for your application. For more information about our design and manufacturing processes and equipment, contact us to speak with a member of our team or request a quote today.
Following whole-grain cleaning operations, those meant to separate seeds, bran and germ from the whole grain, and to remove foreign materials via rotating drums, magnetic separators, aspirators, de-stoners, and varying additional separation methodologies, the wheat, then tempered and soaking for up to 24 hours, conditions the grain for the grinding/milling processes.
Grinding
Modern milling processes aim for a gradual reduction of the wheat kernels through a process of grinding and sifting, then blending it to meet the desired formulation of the end products. Typically the process (“Break”) will feed/inject wheat kernels from bins to roller mills (corrugated steel cylinders, paired and rotating inward against each other at different speeds), which separates bran, endosperm (starch) and germ. Typically there will be as many as five additional Breaks, where the rolls will have successively finer corrugated steel cylinders, reducing the wheat particles to granular form (middlings), which are as free from bran as possible.
Sifters
Following grinding, broken wheat particles move through a series of vibrating sifters, then shaken through a series of bolting cloths or screens, which separate the particle sizes at the cut point. Larger particles are shaken off from the top (scalped and further processed) while the fine flour sifts to the bottom. The yield will then undergo a purifying process for further removal of the bran and coarse and fine particles separation. Additional procedures, such as bleaching and enrichment, then follow.
The two most common grinding machines used by industry are the pin mill and hammer mill. Both mills have fundamentally unique features that make them suited for a wide range of materials production.
Pin Mill
The Pin Mill, unlike the Hammer Mill, consists of a series of pin breakers hinged to discs in the grinding head where it delivers high-energy impact. Pin Mills use shearing and impact methods; however, with a faster tip speed of intermeshing pins when compared to a Hammer Mill. Centrifugal force brings the particle sizes to the grinding chamber’s periphery for collection or further processing. The milling process will produce particle sizes down to ultra-fine micronized sizes +/- 10 µm. Particle sizing generated by the pin mill is the product of rotor tip speed, airflow rate, the feed rate of the material, as well as the morphology of the feed material. The milling process balances additions and reductions of airflow, feed rate, and rotor speed.
Hammer Mill
The Hammer Mill, one of the oldest and widely used grinding mills, typically consists of four or more hammers attached on a central shaft enclosed by a metal casing. The mill performs particle size reduction via high-speed impact of hardened steel rotating hammers. Particle size reduction occurs in three actions: repeated hammer impact, particle collisions with the chamber wall, and particle-to-particle impact. Screens (set at a specified cut point) retain coarse particles for further grinding while allowing product sizes below the cut point to pass. Achieving the target particle sizing is a function of rotor speed, feed rate, hit resistance, clearance between grinding plates and hammers, and screen size.
At Classifier Milling Systems, we manufacture both pin mills and hammer mills as well as the leading air classifier mills and a broad range of milling technologies and products designed to give you the fine grind that suits your unique needs. We are a dedicated team with expert knowledge of particle size reduction. We guarantee exceptional service every time. We also guarantee performance!
Toll processing (third-party processing under contract) will offer the many advantages of subcontracting your production, like having the operational expertise without direct hirings and having the essential infrastructure without making the requisite capital commitment. But before awarding a toll processing contract to a toller, be sure that your contract processor can commit reliable capacity, operational expertise, and the high-level Quality Assurance necessary to guard you against potential product liabilities, and also protecting the intellectual property associated with your contracted materials (product formulas, product additives, blend formulations, particle size distributions). Protecting your IP is a quintessential concern.
We look at some ways in which businesses can keep their peace of mind about their intellectual property and derive all the benefits of toll processing:
Due diligence – Know your toll processing services provider. Look into past contracts. Take the trouble to inspect the toller’s process facilities physically. Ask for samples and lab test results before executing a tolling contract.
Handling of raw material – Put safeguards in place to limit non-essential access to your products and processes.
Third-party production – The use of independent contractors by your tolling partner must be defined. Be sure that violations carry meaningful enforceable penalties.
Security of Product – Physical control of the product from inbound raw materials to final products, storage, and delivery, should have security measures in place that are verifiable. Your IP can walk out the door if your contractor is lax about proper security.
Classifier Milling Systems remains a party to numerous product confidentiality agreements with industry leaders for their product IP.
