Industry Blog

30
Nov 11

Uni-Mill Cone Mill Case Study

Introduction

A customer was looking to replace their existing cone mill for a newer, updated design. The customer required the cone mill for a dry milling application in the pharmaceutical industry.

One concern the customer had was the build up of heat during dry milling. The product was extremely heat sensitive and required careful attention otherwise the screen would blind. To prevent heat building up too much the customer was running their existing machine for 10 minutes, then leaving it to cool for another 10 minutes, before running the machine again. This was causing production to take twice as long as necessary.

 

Our Solution

Hanningfield’s flexibility enabled us to look at the problem in detail and to design an appropriate solution, rather than merely offering ‘off-the-shelf’ technology.

The existing machine used gears to drive the gearbox. Hanningfield suggested the use of a belt to perform the same task, resulting in a significant heat reduction.

Alongside this, the customer realised the additional benefit of a reduction in noise, as the belt offered a quieter alternative to traditional methods.

The mill was also fitted with a screen temperature probe assembly. This monitored the screen temperature and would automatically shut down the machine if a certain temperature was reached. This prevented the need for constant operator supervision.

 

Results and Conclusions

Overall, the machine achieved the customer’s original goal of utilising an updated, more modern mill.

However, the benefit ran much deeper than this through the use of a belt to provide a cooler operation. In fact, the heat reduction was sufficient enough to enable the machine to be run continuously, without the need for downtime.

In an age where continuous and lean manufacturing is promoted, the customer was able to implement an improvement which would eliminate downtime and consequently ensure a better, more efficient process.

Due to this, the improvement offered the customer excellent return-on-investment and will ultimately pay for itself through increased production.

 

Key Facts

- Low Heat: Ideally, a machine is used to process a material, not to change its core characteristics. The low heat generated by the Hanningfield ‘Uni-Mill’ means that the milled product is not altered by the temperature created during grinding. Moreover, many hygroscopic products do not fare well under high temperature conditions. By keeping the temperature optimised, the mill does not negatively affect the product.

- Low Dust: Minimal dust generation is important as excess powder escaping to the atmosphere can be harmful for operators and potentially hazardous to the operating environment. The ‘Uni-Mill’ cone mill produces comparatively little dust compared with many alternative milling processes. Moreover, the Uni-Mill can be integrated with various other pieces of equipment to create a totally-contained, dust-free milling process.

- Low Noise: Minimising noise is desirable to help comply with Health and Safety requirements for maintaining a safe working process environment.

 

For more information on the Uni-Mill cone mill, please click here.

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17
May 11

Gaining Flexibility in Milling Systems

Hanningfield cone mills can offer excellent versatility for engineers and operators alike.

Often, over time, what a customer needs from a piece of machinery may change. This can be extremely true of size reduction mills, such as cone mills. Perhaps the mill needs to be used in another room, at a different operating height or even for a new purpose.

To overcome this problem, it is often advisable to keep the initial mill design as flexible as possible - to ‘future-proof’ against changes to the procedure, the process environment or the product itself.

In this respect, the Hanningfield ‘Uni-Mill’ cone mill can offer a number of significant advantages, in terms of product design. As well as a standard ‘machine-only’ design, Hanningfield are able to incorporate a mobile frame, a height-adjustable hoist, or both, to offer the ultimate in flexible milling systems.

 

Mobile Systems

The Hanningfield Uni-Mill cone mill is extremely compact and is available on a mobile frame. The mobile frame incorporates anti-static, non-marking castors, which allow the machine to be moved within a process room, or even to another room for processing of a different type of product.

Cone mills can easily be fitted to a mobile frame

This can also be particularly advantageous for cleaning and maintenance, as this can be performed away from the process room itself, ensuring the room is not ‘out-of-bounds’, allowing processing/manufacturing to continue whilst the cone mill is being cleaned.

 

Height Adjustable Systems

By mounting the mill on a hoist, a customer can gain height adjustability for vertical positioning of the cone mill. This allows the mill to be raised, or lowered, according to the needs of the process.

Mounting a cone mill onto a post hoist is a simple way of gaining height adjustability

Raising a mill; for example, a customer may wish to raise the mill above an IBC, for milling directly into the inlet of the IBC.

Lowering a mill; for example, the customer may wish to lower the mill to position the mill underneath the outlet of an IBC/vacuum hopper, so product can be directly discharged into the inlet of the mill.

This sort of height adjustability can offer great process flexibility from ‘Day One’, but can also offer long-term benefits in terms of making the cone mill adaptable to undertake a variety of different functions.

 

Changing Screen and Impeller

When considering the flexibility of any type of mill, it is always important to consider tooling changes - such as how much variation does the tooling offer? Or how quick and easy are tooling changes?

Changing the screen and impeller on a cone mill is quick and easy

A cone mill uses a screen and impeller, both of which offer excellent flexibility. Different screens and impellers allow different types of products to be milled, and different particle sizes to be achieved with great easy. Importantly, tooling changes are simple and fast, taking only a couple of minutes to change both screen and impeller.

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25
Mar 11

Mobile Milling Systems

Cone milling, or conical milling, is an excellent method for the size reduction of material. Conical milling offers numerous advantages over alternative milling methods, including minimal generation of dust, heat and noise.

The Hanningfield Uni-Mill cone mill is extremely compact and is available on a mobile frame, which in turn can incorporate a basic hoist for variable height adjustment. This flexibility makes the mill suitable for almost any production line, and offers operator/engineer a greater degree of control.

The below image shows our cone mill, mounted to a hoist, on a mobile frame:

Hanningfield has more than 20 years experience in size reduction and powder processing. The Hanningfield Uni-Mill is designed and manufactured by Hanningfield in the United Kingdom.

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21
Dec 10

Food Cone Mill

Size reduction is a major part of food processing. Most ingredients or products undergo some form of powderisation, deagglomeration or delumping before they become a finished product.

In cone milling, the material is fed through the in-feed chute, using either gravity feed (manually or automatically operated) or by using a vacuum. The material is forced downwards towards the rotating impeller (see picture below), where the centrifugal force pushes the material through the screen, in the required particle size and shape.

Above: Food Cone Mill Grinding Red Peppercorns
Above: Food Cone Mill Grinding Red Peppercorns

Once the material has passed through the cone mill screen, it falls can either fall into a receptacle ready for storage, or automatically flow to a downstream process, offering excellent processing efficiency.

The cone mill can be used for a wide variety of applications in food processing, such as powder or breadcrumb manufacturing, product reclaim, the deagglomeration of food (such as raisins and other dried fruit), the delumping of powders and the size reduction of herbs, spices, flakes (see picture below).

Above: Finished Product of Milled Red Peppercorns
Above: Finished Product of Milled Red Peppercorns

A cone mill is an extremely common and effective method of size reduction in food processing, as it is capable of achieving a high throughput and consistent particle size. The Hanningfield Uni-Mill cone mill also generates low levels of noise and dust, offering significant operating advantages. Importantly, the Uni-Mill also offers an ‘easy-clean’ design, making strip-down and cleaning between processes simple. Manufactured from stainless steel, the Uni-Mill cone mill (pictured below) is a high-performance, low maintenance and extremely hygienic system for size reduction in food processing.

Food Cone Mill
Above: The Hanningfield ‘Uni-Mill’ Food Cone Mill

For more information on the Hanningfield Uni-Mill cone mill click here. Alternatively, to contact a member of our technical sales about using the cone mill for food processing, simply click here.

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20
Dec 10

Cone Mill

A cone mill is an extremely effective machine for size reduction. The advantages of a cone mill over other forms of size reduction mean it is widely used in the pharmaceutical, food, chemical, cosmetic and associated industries.

Above: Cone Mill Screens
Above: The Hanningfield ‘Uni-Mill’ Cone Mill

So-called because of the screen shape (pictured below), a cone mill can offer great adaptability in terms of throughput, particle size, particle shape and many other factors, simply by changing the type of screen or impeller; for example, a screen with a smaller hole size will produce a smaller particle size.

Above: Cone Mill Screens
Above: Cone Mill Screens

Material is fed into the cone mill through an in-feed chute. This can either be charged into the mill using a vacuum or gravity feed. The material passes to a rotating impeller which forces the material through the holes in the screen. Once the material has passed through the screen, the finished product falls from the bottom of the mill to a receptacle beneath.

The cone mill can be used for a wide variety of applications.  In pharmaceuticals, they are often used for wet/dry granulation, tablet reclaim etc., in chemicals the are often used for deagglomeration, in cosmetics it can be used for fine grinding and in food it can be used for deagglomeration, product reclaim and general size reduction.  For example, seeds or nuts (such as almonds, pictured below) can be ground to a smaller particle or even a powdered state.

Above: Cone Mill Screens
Above: Almonds which have been ground in the ‘Uni-Mill’ Cone Mill

For more information on the Hanningfield ‘Uni-Mill’ cone mill click here.  Alternatively, to contact a member of our technical sales for assistance, simply click here.

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16
Dec 10

Pharmaceutical Mill

Milling is an important stage in pharmaceutical processing, and is commonly used for wet and dry granulation sizing, tablet and capsule reclaim, double compression and many other applications.

Hanningfield manufacture a range of conical mills for the pharmaceutical industry - these range from R&D lab mills to full-size, production scale machines.  The conical mill offers many advantages over other milling methods, including low heat generation, minimal dust, higher throughput and adaptability for use on different products.

Hanningfield has more than 20 years experience in pharmaceutical size reduction and the Hanningfield Uni-Mill is designed and manufactured by Hanningfield in the United Kingdom.

For more information on Hanningfield’s pharmaceutical mill, click here.

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7
Dec 10

Conical Mill

A conical mill is a machine for reducing the particle size of material, to create a consistent and uniform finished product.  The conical mill benefits from low noise, minimal heat, reduced dust, higher throughput and a more uniform finished particle size.

Material is fed into the conical mill via the in-feed chute, this can either be via gravity feed or by vacuum.  Once the material has passed through the in-feed chute, it the reaches a rotating impeller which forces the material through the holes in the screen.

With a conical mill it is possible to alter the particle size, particle shape and other characteristics, simply by changing the screen.  For example, the hole size will determine the particle size, so a larger hole will produce a larger particle.  Once the material has passed through the screen, the finished product exits through the milling chamber into a receptacle beneath.

Hanningfield offer the conical mill in a range of different sizes.  From table-top sized mills, to full-scale production models, a conical mill can be used to satisfy a wide range of requirements, most notably in the pharmaceutical, food, chemical and cosmetic industries.

Typical applications for a conical mill include:

  • Reclaiming broken tablets, biscuits or other material
  • Sizing wet granulated particles before drying
  • Sizing dry granulated particles before tabletting
  • Deagglomerating dried fruits or other clumped material

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For more information on the Hanningfield conical mill, please click here.

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30
Jun 10

Uni Mill: Conical Screen Mills

The Uni-Mill conical screen mill draws upon Hanningfield’s wealth of experience in size reduction for the process industries.

Conical screen or ‘cone-milling’ is ideal for achieving a fine, uniform particle size.  By combining high throughput and high efficiency, the low energy Uni-Mill is perfect for the pharmaceutical, food, chemical and consumer goods industries.

The Uni-Mill is designed and manufactured by Hanningfield Process Systems at our UK Headquarters.

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7
Apr 09

UNI MILL

Milling Systems
Hygienic and Easy Clean Design
Stainless Steel Construction
Reduced Batch Times
Rapid Tooling Changes
Low Noise and Heat Levels
Significantly Reduced Dust Levels
No Metal to Metal Contact
Custom Designs Available

Product Features

Product Profile

Conical screen or ‘cone-milling’ is widely recognised as one of the most efficient and beneficial methods for size reduction in powder processing. Process times, cleaning, noise and dust levels are all significantly reduced when using the conical screen milling system. Cone-milling is particularly helpful in ensuring friable products are not damaged by excessive heat through careful selection of screen type, impeller and speed. The cone-mill system also has the major benefit of no metal to metal contact, thus reducing wear and heat build up.

The compact and highly flexible design of the cone-mill allows simple integration into a wide variety of process systems including granulators, blenders, IBC’s and vacuum transfer.

Hanningfield can draw upon many years of experience in designing, manufacturing and maintaining cone-mill equipment. A carefully selected group of partner suppliers enable us to provide an excellent range of conical screen milling machines and performance matched tooling equipment such as screens and impellers.

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