Hammermill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the record label, see Hammermill Records
A hammermill is a machine whose purpose is to shred material into fine particles. They have many sorts of applications in many industries, including:
- A farm machine, which mills grain into coarse flour to be fed to livestock.
- Shredding paper.
- Milling grain.
- Shredding scrap automobiles (see automotive shredder residue).
- In waste management
The concept is fairly straightforward. A hammermill is essentially a steel drum containing a vertical or horizontal cross-shaped rotor on which pivoting hammers are mounted. The hammers are free to swing on the ends of the cross. The rotor is spun at a high speed inside the drum while material is fed into a feed hopper. The material is impacted by the hammers on the ends of the rotating cross and thereby is shredded and expelled through screens in the drum.
Small grain hammermills can be operated on household current. Large automobile shredders can use one or more 2000 horsepower (1.5 MW) diesel engines to power the hammermill.
The Screenless hammer mill uses air flow to separate small particles from larger ones. It is designed to be more reliable, and is also claimed to be much cheaper and more energy efficient than regular hammermills.
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[edit] Other uses
- The term 'hammer mill' is occasionally used as a synonym for forge, particularly a finery forge or a forge making blooms from a bloomery into bars of wrought iron.
