Miller Magazine Issue: 119 November 2019

48 COVER STORY MILLER / NOVEMBER 2019 optimum acceptable moisture levels. Efficiencies must be maintained in preventing any losses of wheat into screen- ings and any solids through improper filter system. OPERATIONAL FACTORS Rolling distance: The rolling distance is the main oper- ating factor that determines the grinding effect. The rolling distance adjustment is the main operation content of the grinding machine. In actual production, the technical char- acteristics of the powder path and the grinding roller are generally relatively stable, and when the conditions of the raw material, moisture, climatic conditions, grinding teeth are changed, the grinding effect is mainly corrected by adjusting the rolling distance. When the 1B rolling distance is 0.9mm, the peeling rate is 20%; when the rolling distance is 0.7mm, the peeling rate is increased to 35%; when the rolling distance is re- duced to 0.5mm, the peeling rate is 75%. The rolling dis- tance is in the range of 0.5-0.7mm, which has the great- est influence on the stripping rate. Flow rate: The unit flow rate of the flour mill is usually expressed in units of contact length of the roller unit, ie kg/cm. When the flow rate is too large, the homogeneity of material crushing will be reduced. If the flow rate is too small, the feeding state is not normal and the equipment operation is unstable. The 1B mill will control the entire powder flow. In addition to the final equipment, the grind- ing effect of each milling machine and the screening effect of the corresponding screening equipment will affect the working status of subsequent equipment. When the flow rate is large, the ro- tation speed of the grinding roller can be appropriately increased. However, when the rotation speed is high, the loss and vibration of the equipment will increase. The cost of energy consump- tion is also one of the most im- portant subjects causing head- ache for the flour factories that already operate with a low-profit margin. Power requirements in mills is one of the highest of all operational costs, and it is per- tinent that all equipment used, is run at optimum capacity to avoid underutilization and wastage. Energy management should be planned in more details, the measurements should be con- ducted more fastidiously, and energy consumption should be closely monitored. The electrical engineering team has to regularly inspect and correct any anomalies in the transformer banks, ca- pacitor banks and MCB’s, thereby ensuring that there are no unnecessary interruptions during normal operations. MCC’s have to be inspected regularly during which time the electricians must check and ensure that all connec- tions to and from the circuit breakers and overloads are tightened to avoid shorts and failures during normal op- erations. Most mills around the world are allocated power off the local power grid, that has to be consumed by the mill or a levy is imposed by the supplier. It is therefore extremely important for the miller to ensure that when the facilities are operational, that they operate at design capacity or better always, and that the parameters set out by man- agement for target moisture content of conditioned wheat as well as quality parameters for milled products are met. This is only achievable if all plant and equipment are main- tained and adjusted correctly. Exploring new technologies may also help to improve efficiency, increase productivity and reduce costs. For ex- ample, many companies are now using cloud computing systems as opposed to in-house hardware that can be relatively expensive to buy and maintain.