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Small Commercial Flour Mill – Turn Grain Into Money

small commercial flour mill

Well, a small commercial flour mill won’t be able to make money directly from your grain. Sorry for the catchy headline!

However, with the right business plan and marketing, you can turn this machine into one of the key factors for your product’s success.

Which Flour Mill Is Best For Commercial Use?

We think the characteristics listed below are important when choosing a small commercial mill for your business:

Manual or electric?

Both manual and electric grinding devices can be found on the market. It is clear that even a small commercial flour milling operation requires sufficient capacity. Therefore, it is worth choosing a flour mill with an electric motor. Unless you make an all-natural product, hand grinding will add extra value to your product from a marketing perspective.

small commercial flour mill

Type of grinder – millstone vs. stainless steel

The millstones are made with extremely resistant minerals to pressure and friction force to operate efficient cold milling. Crank flour mills mount stones composed of a mixture of magnesite and corundum. 

The latter is considered one of the hardest minerals present in nature, second only to diamond. The combination of these components makes it possible to obtain excellent quality flour at a decidedly affordable price.

On the other hand, motorized mills see the magnesite replaced by ceramic, which is more suitable for resisting prolonged use over time. The millstones are made by mixing the minerals, pressing them, and cooking them at high temperatures. 

It is good to reiterate that this process involves completely natural elements in order to make the millstones suitable for remaining in contact with edible ingredients.

Stainless steel body

The metal body is usually reserved for purely professional mills. Indeed, the high quality of the coating guarantees this category of product longevity and a level of performance that is, in fact, unsurpassed.

These qualities, combined with the presence of stainless steel grinders and a servo-ventilated motor, make the grinders an obligatory choice for any activity that requires an intensive and prolonged grinding rhythm over the years.

So, the stainless steel grinders are typical of professional-grade mills. Assisted by powerful electric motors, these have the ability to separate the bran from the flour through a single pass.

A mill with tempered steel alloy millstones is a de facto obligatory choice in commercial activities such as pasta factories or pastry shops and, in general, in all those places where a milling tool capable of working for prolonged sessions is needed.

The grinding proceeds will be immediately ready for use, fully preserving all the nutritional principles. By suitably adjusting the granulometry, this type of millstone will be able to release even very refined flours.

Commercial Grain Mill – The Things You Should Consider

Modern small commercial flour mill should have the following characteristics:

  • Open cover stop – a grain mill should be an open-cover-stop type, which stops automatically when the cover is opened, significantly improving safety and making it more ergonomic.
  • Enough power to get the job done – at least 1800W power commercial motor ensures the grain mill can reach high speed up to 28,000rpm, except if working with tough material. It should need 2-3 minutes to get the job done. Ordinary grains only need 30 seconds to grind 70 to 300 mesh superfine powder.
  • The intake bowl is large enough – in order to get the best grind, grinding materials require space so they don’t get squeezed while grinding. The optimal amount of grinding cannot exceed 2/3 of the capacity.
  • Look for versatility – better find a grinder that could not only be used as a small commercial flour mill. The possibility to mill other products, such as dehydrated fruit and vegetable, spice, or even coffee, would make your business more adaptable.

Below are several examples of a small commercial flour mill:

Electric grain mill with automatic feed function, 1000 pounds per hour, 4000 W

  • The adjustable grain size: is equipped with two different grinding filters, 0.07-inch, and 0.1-inch filters, and can be adjusted according to your needs.
  • Built-in automatic crusher: adopts automatic feeding mode and self-priming design. Manual feeding is not required. The feeding speed can be adjusted.
  • Professional high-power mill: 4000W high-power pure copper motor, good conductivity, stable operation, main shaft speed 2800r / min, can grind 500-1000 pounds of grains per hour.
  • Scope of application: the grinding thickness can be adjusted. The finest is 0.02 inches, suitable for grinding corn, rice, wheat, beans, coffee beans, pepper, spices, etc. Ideal for commercial or home use.
  • The whole machine is made of cast iron, which is very strong and durable. The large funnel can reduce the dust in the grinding process. The application is simple and convenient.

60W electric grain mill, also suitable for small breweries

  • Robust mill with an aluminum hopper that can hold up to 1 gallon of grain at once.
  • A precise grind is also necessary to get the best possible final product. The roller is the most essential part of the uniform grind. It uses food-grade stainless steel with molybdenum added during the manufacturing process for a very high level of corrosion resistance. It is characterized by high resistance to acids, bromides, and iodides at high temperatures.
  • Using just a 60W gear motor at 75rpm results in an output rate of 44 pounds per hour.

Manual grain grinder for corn, wheat, nut, and coffee

  • Multifunction: This multi-grit grinder can grind corn, wheat, and oats, and also coffee of nuts, herbs, spices, seeds, etc.
  • High-quality materials: durable and good quality, a cast iron structure, and double tin coating against rust.
  • Easy to install: the tabletop mounting brackets, flange base model easily attaches to any counter.
  • Large capacity and easy to grind: Large capacity shredder allows you to grind large batches quickly and easily with a long wooden handle for easy turning of the crank.
  • Of course – the final output per hour depends on the strength of your arms!

Is Flour Milling Profitable?

Are you looking for a job that entrusts you with the responsibility of feeding many people and allows you to work independently? If so, then flour milling is for you. And yes, it can be profitable with the right business plan.

The variety of bread anywhere in the world indicates that the need for well-milled flour is not going anywhere. As mentioned, the millers can be self-employed or work in the milling industry.

Process technologists in a grain mill produce flour, semolina, and various by-products. They make it from grain – mainly wheat and rye.

The flour is then sold to households, bakers, industrial bakeries, and trading companies. In a hulling mill, they also turn:

  • oats
  • barley
  • corn
  • rice
  • millet
  • buckwheat
  • peas
  • beans
  • and other grains 

…into nutrients (oat flakes, pearl barley, cornflakes) for human consumption.

In a compound feed company, feed for livestock, pets, and zoo animals, as well as for the game, is produced from milled raw materials of vegetable and mineral origin.

How To Produce Flour Commercially?

In principle, grinding is carried out using the following processes:

  • crushing (grinding)
  • sieving (sifting)
  • mixing the various intermediate products

As mentioned, milling occurs in professional commercial mills, where the grain is cut up and ground.

The commercial flour production process involves the following actions:

  1. Through multiple targeted grinding and sifting (sieving) of products of the same grain size and the same structure, a desired product with almost constant baking properties can be produced from the raw material grain without using any chemicals.
  2. The flour fractions are separated by appropriately fine sieves after each milling pass. The machine for this today is the industrial sifter, a large device equipped with many sieves, similar to the hand sieve. In principle, it is about sorting out products that are roughly the same grain size and structure and grinding them together.
  3. The sieving machines differ from each other in particular parameters. The flour is separated at each passage. The “passage flours” differ in terms of the proportion of shells and the fineness of the flour particles.

Sometimes sieved flours of different granularity are purposefully mixed together in the flour mixing machine to form some specific end product.

For example, grippy flours are relatively coarse and are explicitly used for pasta.

The standard of control for this sieving step is determining the flour color and the ash content by burning a flour sample in the mill laboratory. Flour color and ash content are related.

The resulting by-product, the shell, ends as bran in the cattle’s stomach. The wheat germ might also be used in the production of medicines.

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