SPECIAL STORY FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE April 2022 45 mills work well, as most of you know, down to a certain particle size. Then your roller mill simply operates with the rolls too close together and maintenance issues rear their ugly head. That dictates when to utilize hammer mills. So my guidelines are as follows: Use roller mills: • For mash feed down to 500 microns. • For large volumes of feed. • To effectively control particles of all sizes. • To reduce energy costs. • In front of hammer mills when doing large volumes. Use hammer mills: • For particle sizes under 500. • For pelleting. We need some of the fine dust for “glue”. • When you need multiple particle sizes but volume dictates only one machine. • For multiple ingredients. (Some of us have had to grind ingredients other than just corn.) We recently designed a grinding system for a fair amount of volume but they needed both hammer mill and roller mill feeds. The triple roller mill was placed over the grinder with bypass options. The system could use any or all of the rolls then go through the hammer mill or bypass it for rolled corn. We could roll corn to any specified micron size before entering the hammer mill. If doing volume, it will pay for itself. I will (sort of ) apologize for the sarcasm in this article but it was done to get your attention. Too many mills are complacent about using hammer mills and it costs them money. Now one last item, if you have a better method to grind corn than either of the two methods discussed, my number is 712 346 8308! Thanks for reading. ‘Til next time! About Wayne Cooper Wayne Cooper operated and supervised feed mills in Iowa for 23 years before taking on the job of Director of Feed Technology for the Cherkizovo Group, Russia’s largest feed manufacturer. This production had an extreme focus on pelleting as every ton from all seven mills was pelleted. Those years allowed him to see an international version of the feed industry and the technology on both sides of the Atlantic. His problem solving experience is now used to optimize feed mill production for the clients of Anderson Feed Technology.
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