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.