A Comparative Study of New and Traditional Designs of a Hammer Mill

This article presents a research study aimed at determining the effect of selected hammer mill design features on the efficiency of grinding cereal grain. For the purpose of the study, a test stand was developed and constructed to test the influence of the selected mill design features on the efficiency of grinding triticale. The study was conducted with modern measurement equipment consisting of a torque meter with tachometer (MIR-20) and a two-channel meter (MW2006-4) connected to a PC computer. Recording of the measured values was carried out using the program PP203. The tested designs of the hammer mill differed mostly in the shape of the hammers. A characteristic shape indicator was the hammer angle (α). In the experiment, the design of a standard rotor (α = 0°) was compared to a new design (α = 35°, 45°, and 55°). Statistical analysis of the experimental results was carried out using self-developed software (Statistica Trial 10). The statistical analysis revealed that the new design of the rotor is more efficient than the commonly used traditional design and can bring significant economic and technological benefits. The results obtained from this study of grinding triticale using hammers with the shape of a circle section, hitherto unknown in the literature, are a valuable contribution to the theory of grinding. They can provide a basis for further research concerning hammer mills.