Pellet Mill Manufacturers

There are a growing number of pellet mill manufactures, producing both small and large scale pellet mills to process a variety of raw materials from animal feed to animal bedding. For industrial applications there are a few key pellet mill manufactures. The designs of the pellet mills do differ, however all work on the principle of a roller and die compression principle and high temperature wood pellet production, here are a few of the manufacturers.

Flat Die Pellet Mills and Wood Pellets

Though China still produces large quantities of flat die pellet mills for the small pellet production market, the industrial and western market has now majority left flat die pellet mill design. The flat die pellet mill is the oldest design of pellet mill. The only western manufacturer producing flat die pellet mills is Kahl in Germany. One of the main reasons many manufactures have moved away from flat die pellet mills designs is due to concern over excessive die and roller wear and increased energy consumption compared to other designs. The principle of the accelerated roller and die wear comes from the fact the the contact point between the die and roller on the inner and outer edge are turning at different speeds. Therefore this will generate a slipping action due to the difference in speed, leading to increased roller and die wear. Though this fact maybe true, there are some important points to consider compared to ring die designs. Generally flat die pellet mills are cheaper to produce and so are the consumable parts. One of the key reasons is the die requires heat treatment to increase life. However ring dies can buckle under heat treatment, increasing production costs. Also it has been found that processing some low density raw materials it very hard with ring die pellet mills compared to flat die pellet mills. Therefore though flat die pellet mills may have their faults, it is not possible to discount flat die pellet mills altogether.

Ring Die Pellet Mills and Wood Pellets

For large scale industrial manufacturers, the common design now is the ring die pellet mill. Some manufactures of ring die pellet mills include CPM, Bliss and Comact. The ring die pellet mill has a ring shaped die with either 3 or maybe 3 rollers applying compression to the inner surface of the ring. Material is entered into the centre of the ring, and compressed through the die to the outside of the ring. As the roller and die are turning at the same speed across the surface of the die, lower roller and die wear is expected and also reduced energy consumption per ton of pellets. Ring die pellet mills however a very large and very heavy, therefore they are only really practical form large scale pellet production plants.

Double Rotating Die Pellet Mills

There is a fairly new design of pellet mills that has two rotating dies, the only manufacture of this design of pellet mill currently is Pellet Systems International PSi. The two dies run next to each other similar to two rotating cogs. As material enters between the two dies, the material is compressed through each die, and comes out in the centre of each die ring. Again energy consumption is stated to be lower.

The Wood Pellet Production Guide © PelHeat Ltd - Pellet Mill Manufacturers