For the record label, see Hammermill Records

Hammermill Records

Hammermill Records is an independent record label based in the United States with a focus on all styles of Heavy Metal.-Releases:* Death Du Jour "Gamashinoch" MCD * Mucus Membrane "Shades Below" CD...

.

A hammermill is a machine whose purpose is to shred or crush aggregate material into smaller pieces. These machines have many sorts of applications in many industries, including:

• Ethanol
  Ethanol
  Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...
  
   plants (corn)
• A farm
  Farm
  A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
  
   machine, which mills grain
  Cereal
  Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
  
   into coarse flour
  Flour
  Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
  
   to be fed to livestock
  Livestock
  Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
  
  
• Fluff pulp
  Fluff pulp
  Fluff pulp is a type of chemical pulp made from long fibre softwoods. Important parameters for fluff pulp are bulk and water absorbency.-Manufacture:...
  
   production
• Fruit juice production
• Grinding used shipping pallet
  Pallet
  A pallet , sometimes called a skid, is a flat transport structure that supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, pallet jack, front loader or other jacking device. A pallet is the structural foundation of a unit load which allows handling and storage efficiencies...
  
  s for mulch
  Mulch
  In agriculture and gardening, is a protective cover placed over the soil to retain moisture, reduce erosion, provide nutrients, and suppress weed growth and seed germination. Mulching in gardens and landscaping mimics the leaf cover that is found on forest floors....
  
  
• Milling grain
• Sawmill
  Sawmill
  A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
  
  s, size reduction of trim scrap and planer shavings into boiler fuel or mulch

• Shredding paper
• Shredding scrap automobiles (see automotive shredder residue
  Automotive shredder residue
  The shredding of automobiles and major household appliances is a process where a hammermill acts as a giant tree chipper by grinding the materials fed into it to fist-size pieces. The shredding of automobiles results in a mixture of ferrous metal, non-ferrous metal The shredding of automobiles and...
  
  )
• Shredding yard and garden waste for composting
• Crushing large rocks
• In waste management

Operation

The basic principle is straightforward. A hammermill is essentially a steel drum containing a vertical or horizontal rotating shaft or drum on which hammers are mounted. The hammers are free to swing on the ends of the cross, or fixed to the central rotor. 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 hammer bars and is thereby shredded and expelled through screens in the drum of a selected size.
Small grain hammermills can be operated on household current. Large automobile shredders can use one or more 2000 horsepower (1.5 MW) diesel engine

Diesel engine

A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

s to power the hammermill.

The Screenless hammer mill

Screenless hammer mill

The screenless hammer mill, like regular hammer mills, is used to pound grain. However, rather than a screen, it uses air flow to separate small particles from larger ones....

 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.

See also

• Blade grinder
  Blade grinder
  A blade grinder is a machine that chops material while mixing it, by means of a high-speed spinning blade. Applications of blade grinders for preparing foods include numerous electric kitchen appliances such as blenders , food processors, some garbage disposals, and some coffee grinders...
  
  
• Trip hammer
  Trip hammer
  A trip hammer, also known as a helve hammer, is a massive powered hammer used in:* agriculture to facilitate the labor of pounding, decorticating and polishing of grain;...
  
  , which may be housed in a mill usually known as a forge
  Forge
  A forge is a hearth used for forging. The term "forge" can also refer to the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith, although the term smithy is then more commonly used.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals...
  
  , but which was historically occasionally described as a "hammermill".