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How Does a Pin Mill Work?

What Is an Industrial Pin Mill? 

Industrial pin mills are specialized machines that can reduce particles down to fine or ultra-fine particles through precise feeding and repeated impact. Well-constructed fine grinding equipment can break down anything from spices to active pharmaceutical ingredients, allowing for properly controlled dosages and particle sizes in pharmaceutical, food processing, and chemical applications. This article will talk about how pin mills work, their design benefits, and how they support various processing and production requirements.

How an Industrial Pin Mill Operates

These machines utilize a combination of pins mounted to a stationary disc plate and pins on a second rotational rotor plate. The operators feed material through the feed inlet into the grinding chamber. As the material moves through the grinding zone, centrifugal force accelerates the material through the intermeshing shearing pins, breaking down the material into right-sized fine or ultra-fine particles. Additionally, an inverter drive allows the operator to shift for the desired cut points without needing to shut down the mill. 

Based on the material properties, operators can change the feed rate or the rotor speed of the rotating disk to achieve different particle sizes. 

Applications of Industrial Pin Mills

Industrial pin mills can be used in a range of pin mill applications, including:

• Pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical manufacturers can grind down active ingredients into fine and ultra-fine particles for tablet formulation.
• Food processing. Food processing centers can break down dry food ingredients like spices and sugar for resale or to produce goods.
• Chemical manufacturing. Chemical manufacturers can break down dry materials for pigments, dyes, and chemical compounds.
• Agriculture. Pin mills can be used in agricultural applications to grind down grains or livestock feed material. 

Key Factors That Influence Performance

It’s important to choose the right industrial pin mill and processes to consistently achieve the correct particle size for your application. Four key factors that can influence a mill’s long-term performance are: 

• Feed rate. While a high feed rate can overload the machine, consistency matters more in providing a uniform particle size.
• Material. Each material has a different hardness, sensitivity to high temperatures during the grinding process, moisture content, tendency to shatter, and so on. These characteristics will change how quickly your mill can process them and what settings lead to the best product quality.
• Rotor speed. Slow speeds can generate less force, leading to larger particles than fast-moving rotors that generate more force and break down particles more. However, fast-moving rotors also generate more heat.
• Pin configuration. While every industrial pin mill has a stationary disk and a rotating disk with pins, different models may have more or fewer pins, bigger or smaller pins, unique configurations and layouts, and even different fabrication materials. 

Considering these factors during the buying process can help you optimize the performance of your mill. 

Design Benefits and Limitations

While industrial pin mills are known for their accuracy and consistency, they have several other advantages in milling operations. Weigh these pros and cons to decide if a pin mill is the right fit for your application. 

Benefits

Industrial pin mills can accommodate the demands of many different materials and facilities. Some of the main benefits of industrial pin mills include the following: 

• Highly precise grinding that results in consistently fine particles
• Low heat generation that makes it well-suited for milling heat-sensitive materials
• Capable of processing a wide range of materials
• Easy access to parts requiring maintenance or cleaning

Limitations

With industrial pin mills, there are some design limitations to consider. The repeated force and impact on hard materials can wear through mill parts over time, requiring regular maintenance to maintain optimal performance. The pins can also consume a lot of energy producing ultra-fine particles, although they are relatively energy-efficient compared to other options. Lastly, while these mills work well with heat-sensitive materials, they aren’t intended for use with sticky or high-moisture or sticky materials.

CMS’s Expertise in Pin Mill Systems

As a design engineer and OEM manufacturer of industrial and environmental materials size-reduction milling systems, Classifier Milling Systems has experience dealing with processing issues across a wide range of materials and industries. We can provide specialized expertise to ensure your industrial pin mills have the right rotor configurations and power levels to deliver the necessary performance. 

To learn more about our comprehensive offerings and industries served, get in touch with us. Whether you’re in food processing, chemical manufacturing, or another sector, we can help you get the results you require!

How Does a Hammer Mill Work?

What Is an Industrial Hammer Mill?

An industrial hammer mill is a machine for grinding and pulverizing various materials into a smaller consistency. This type of material size reduction equipment uses a rotating shaft attached to hammers to repeatedly crush materials placed into the mill’s chamber. The most common hammer mill applications include recycling, agriculture, and mining, where industrial hammer mills are an efficient means of maintaining particulate uniformity and reducing size. This article will talk about how hammer mills work, their applications, and how they perform compared to other milling systems.

How Industrial Hammer Mills Operate

Industrial hammer mill operation involves several steps:

1. Feeding materials. Gravity or a metered feeding system is used to introduce materials into the chamber of the hammer mill.
2. Size reduction. A rotor drives the hammers, repeatedly striking and reducing materials.
3. Screening. Reduced material then passes through a screen, which determines the final particle size.
4. Discharge. Materials that pass the screen exit the mill, with oversized particulates recirculating back into the mill until they reach the desired size.

This process ensures uniform particle size, which is crucial for consistent product quality.

Common Applications for Hammer Mills

Hammer mill applications fulfill numerous commercial needs across a wide variety of industrial and commercial sectors, including:

• Agricultural. These mills can be used for grinding grains for livestock feed.
• Food processing. Hammer mills can effectively pulverize spices and other solid food/ingredients.
• Pharmaceuticals. These mills are an ideal choice of equipment in pharmaceutical applications, where active ingredients must often retain a specific particle size.​
• Recycling. Recycling facilities can use hammer mills to shred various materials (e.g., paper or electronic waste) for reuse.
• Mining. Hammer mills can be used for crushing ores and minerals before processing them further.

Advantages and Design Benefits

Compared to other material size reduction equipment, industrial hammer mills have many key advantages and design features:

• Design simplicity. Their simple, straightforward design makes hammer mills easy to operate.
• Versatility. Industrial hammer mills can process a wide range of materials.
• High efficiency. Due to their high reduction ratios, hammer mills can often reduce materials to the intended size in a single pass.
• Cost-effectiveness. Industrial hammer mills often have low up-front costs and are cheaper to operate.

It’s important to note that material size and type will have a direct effect on energy consumption and component wear.

Newer Alternatives CMS Recommends

While hammer milling is effective for many applications, air classifier mills are at the leading edge of size reduction technology, being more innately suited for rendering more precise particle size distributions (a prime determinant of product quality). CMS designs air classifier mills with key features like:

• Enhanced particle size control. Air classifier mills are ideal for achieving finer particulates and more uniform product consistency.​
• Energy efficiency. The mill type you choose will directly affect the energy consumption required for operation, with air classifier mills requiring less power to run per unit of output.
• Integrated grinding and classifying. Air classifier milles enhance efficiency through the integration of separate processes into a single unified system.

CMS’s Legacy in Hammer Mill Systems

CMS has an extensive history refining the technology behind various industrial mill systems, including hammer mill systems as well as newer air classifier milling solutions. Our dedicated design technicians are at the forefront of the industry, taking a three-pronged approach to size reduction technology:

• Advanced system design for size reduction solutions custom-tailored to the client’s exact needs.​
• Process optimization to enhance output efficiency and product quality while implementing system-wide improvements.​
• Consultation services, helping clients across industries make informed choices based on their design and process integration goals.​

If you’re looking to optimize your milling operations, Classifier Milling Systems can help. Contact a member of our team to find out how we can help you get the results you need or request a quote on one of our newer milling systems.