ABM Equipment has released a new mill designed to solve problems of other dust-tight roller mills, the company says. The 9”x9” rollers handle up to 66.5 lbs. per minute, bridging existing options at 9"x6" and 9"x12". The features and size of this mill is tailored toward those producing grain feed for animals, ethanol, seed oils, and some construction, plastic, and other inorganic materials.

The new mill has a number of new features, including a closeable flow gate to reduce the risk of flooding and both a hinged hopper and optional reversible drive in case someone forgets about the gate and floods it anyway. To simplify maintenance, it is dust-tight, uses sealed bearings, includes a grate magnet to protect the rollers, and is designed to reduce roller drift. Other miscellaneous benefits are that it’s made in the USA, comes with 24/7 support, and works out-of-the-box with DSO Sentinel, ABM’s system automation software.

The following features are to be added to the first units sold:

• The units will have either manual or digital roller position indicators so that operators can notate and revisit different settings.
• An angled gravity-drop sampler will be installed for when processors are using gentle conveying methods.
  • Those using augers should sample their grain at the final discharge because augers will affect the final result).

Involved in the development of the mill were numerous brewers, Marc Martin of Alpha King consulting, and Jim Thurman—the inventor of the Jim Boney mill. Thurman and ABM are currently collaborating on the next version of his 3-roller mill for smaller operations. The small 3-roller is to be released later this year. ABM asks that millers submit feature requests to help them build the “ideal” mill.

“Some features we’ve added already exist in other mills,” says John Cassa, co-owner. “We just wanted to combine everything—existing features in this mill or that, solutions for problems the most popular mills have always had, and keep the price down. Our introductory price will depend on how many POs we get on release because rollers are the most expensive part and their price is volume-sensitive.”

For more information, click here or contact John Hilgendorf at (360) 558-7156 or jhilgendorf@abmequipment.com.

Related: Snack and bakery logistics increasingly inviting automation and robotics