The hammer mill is a shredding or a crushing machine used to reduce the size of the materials. The basic design of the hammer mill includes a rotating shaft on which few no-swing hammers are attached. The whole assembly is enclosed within a drum that holds the materials that need to be pulverized. To place the materials into the drum, the hammer mill uses a hopper. The hammer mill gradually breaks up the material until it gets small enough to easily pass through a small opening at the bottom. This opening can be adjusted depending on the size that needs to be achieved.
The hammer mill is extensively used in many industries, and it comes with different configurations. The hammer mill is most commonly used in the research, agricultural and in the residential industry. Most hammer mill models have small size so they can be positioned on a counter top, and usually run on electricity. However, there are some hammer mill types that are very large. These large hammer mills usually feature large diesel engine that produces up to 2,200 horsepower. The axis of the rotating shaft of the hammer mill can be constructed either horizontally or vertically, but the more preferred configuration is the horizontal.
Some Australian farmers use a hammer mill to pulverize the grain for livestock feed, which only extends the range of uses of the hammer mill. This machine is widely used thanks to its ability to process various types of materials and to produce particles of various sizes by readjusting the opening. For agricultural use, the no-swing hammers of the hammer mill can move up to 90 km/h at 1,800 rpm. The final product will be uniform with a tendency of having a spherical shape. The hammer mill has many industrial uses also, including recycling operations, bio-fuel production, stone crushing, etc. Also, the hammer mill is efficient for grinding grain for ethanol production and for pulverizing fruit for juice production.
The large hammer mills are generally used for metal recycling applications. These machines are capable to grind up whole cars at once, and to pulverize them into small pieces. Smaller hammer mills are commonly used in laboratories for grinding materials for some experiments. Also, smaller hammer mill models are used for grinding different kinds of foods. Lastly, the hammer mill can be used for garbage disposal, because it comes with a disk with a fixed teeth and a grinding surface.
