Jan 9, 2023
What Happens in a Flour Mill?
Flour is the main ingredient in a variety of foods, including breakfast cereals, breads, cakes, biscuits, and puddings. It is also a basic ingredient in baby food.
How do you use a grain mill?
To make flour, wheat is processed in a flour mill. During the process, the endosperm is broken and reduced into smaller particles. These particles are then crushed into a fine powder. Some of the endosperm is also separated into smaller pieces called middlings.
The first stage of milling is grain cleaning. This removes foreign materials such as broken kernels and impurities. Afterwards, the germ and bran are separated.
In the second stage of the milling process, the grain is divided into five or six portions. Each portion is then sifted to determine the final product. A variety of different types of flour are produced in each section.
The grain is then crushed by a series of rollers. The particles are then sorted by size. Larger particles are shaken off the top and coarse fractions are sifted through a cloth screen.
Once the grain is sifted, the final crushing is made by smooth steel rollers. A small amount of shear is important for the finer flour particles.
The resulting flour is then packaged for bulk delivery. Commercial flour mills often have several machines. They may even blend the flour streams to create unique flours.
In modern flour mills, hundreds of pieces of machinery are used to process the grain. These machines require thousands of horsepower to run.
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