Densification of Corn Starch Using the Sturtevant Simpactor® Pin Mill

Designed to use varying degrees of impact and agitation to process grain and food materials, the Sturtevant Simpactor® pin mill is among the most versatile equipment in the milling industry. Steve Coulombe, Sturtevant’s Simpactor® Sales Engineer, explains that the Sturtevant pin mill is adaptable to a variety of applications and materials. This multipurpose centrifugal impact mill is used for size reduction, deagglomeration, densification, and high-intensity mixing/blending of both wet and dry materials.

Coulombe reports that within the milling industry, there’s been a renewed interest in reducing the bulk density of corn starch. “An average corn starch can be reduced to 90% of its bulk density using the Simpactor® resulting in a savings of 10% in transportation costs,” explains Coulombe. As an example, 35 lb/ft³ oxidized corn starch can be densified to 31 to 32 lb/ft³ at a capacity of 30,000 lb/hr using only 300 HP, says Coulombe.

Other grain mill applications include debranning, scouring incoming whole grain, prebreaking, degerminating, infestation control in whole grains or flour, and tail end reduction.

How it works: The Sturtevant Simpactor® is a centrifugal, pin-type impact mill, reducing low-to-medium-density materials to uniform fine particle size of 50-200 mesh. Feed is dropped onto the spinning rotor plate where centrifugal force drives it through a set of intermeshing pins and against a corrugated impact ring. This action reduces the size of friable particles via impact.