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There Are Multiple Benefits Of A Corn Grinder For Processing

A corn grinder must be able to produce large uniform pieces that are free of the germ and bran. Until the 20th century, it was difficult to do this with any reliability, so most homes had to settle for substandard meal back then. Even though this was the case, processing this grain for consumption has been around for centuries. As far back as the 12th century, homes used simple stones to mill the grain for eating. The technology wouldn’t improve much for hundreds of years, but the Industrial revolution changed things. With the advent of processing plants, the meal could be delivered directly to consumers in great bulk. However, it was still difficult to separate the desirable parts of the grain from the bran and germ. Clever machine designs in the late 1990s improved this concept and machines in the 2000s nearly perfected it.

It is more efficient for a corn grinder to reliably remove the bran and germ than for it to be sifted out after reduction. To achieve this, though, the device has to apply varying levels of pressure so that the bran and germ slough off. The easiest way to do this is to feed the grain into an annulus. An annulus is a circular shaped device that operates using epicyclic gearing. It works like a rotary, spinning the open chamber and any grain inside it. One side of the chamber consists of a series of mesh screens. These screens only allow pieces of a certain size to exit the corn grinder, ensuring that only desirable grits make it through the machine. During operation, the annulus spins, pressing the grains against a surface that is uniquely shaped. It consists of a series of small ridges, compressing and relaxing the grains again and again very quickly. This repeated “scrubbing” action removes the bran and germ from the valuable endosperm.

During milling, the goal is to produce large grits (also known as flaking grits) of fairly uniform size. However, smaller grits are still useful. To efficiently separate them, a series of sifters are employed. These sifters are designed with a series of screens that capture grits of varying sizes. Once they are separated in this way, they can be packaged into separate containers and either stored or shipped.

Anything other than large grits, though, may need to spend more time in a corn grinder
. Smaller grains are usually deposited into a polisher, which is also adept at degermination. These machines direct the kernels horizontally, unlike a larger corn grinder, which requires vertical space. Because it is horizontal instead of vertical, it can operate at lower pressures. For this reason, it is only adept at removing the bran, but it is able to produce kernels in a particular range.

Degermination processes are a new form of milling and confer multiple benefits during processing
. It produces much higher yields and reduces fat content in the end product. The finished product also contains fewer contaminants like insect fragments. Degermination machines are the best the industry has to offer and can produce edibles that people in the 12th century could only dream of.




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