Grinding characteristics (one and two stage grinding) of roasted maize (RM) and soybean (RS) were conducted in attrition mill to find the effect of feed rate and peripheral speed on average particle size (A PS ), specific energy consumption (S EC ), size reduction ratio (SRR), and grinding constants.Carr Index (CI), Housner ratio (HR), density, water, and oil absorption capacity of flour were also studied as a function of particle size. The higher SRR, A PS , and grinding recovery were recorded in the first stage grinding as compared with second one. S EC was decreasing significantly (p < .05) from 0.0039 6 0.0011 to 0.0013 6 0.0019 kwh/kg as, feed rate increased from 9 to 15 kg/hr. The grinding constants were significantly increased in the second stage grinding. The flowability of flour such as CI and HR was poor at lower particle size. S EC and A PS analysis revealed that a twostage segregated grinding would be suitable for RM and RS grinding.
Practical applicationsRoasted maize and soybean flour are highly nutritive food and prepared by roasting, grinding and sieving. Flour particle sizes and flow specific properties play an important role in addressing malnutrition and ready-to-eat food formulations. The digestibility and release of bioactive components also depend upon particle size and granular morphology of the food. Though, the present study is also acquainted with energy consumption during processing operation and product quality and which are key parameters for scaling-up and designing the grinding equipment. The information generated regarding the energy consumption and health benefits may be useful for food processors and consumers as well. Several researchers and commercial industries have used the dry milling of cereals and studied the particle size distribution and energy consumptions, respectively (Velu, Nagender, Rao, & Rao, 2006). Though the determination of minimum energy requirement for the grinding process is difficult, the Kick's, Rittinger's, and Bond's theories are found suitable to estimate the energy (Meghwal & Goswami, 2010, 2014a, 2014bRaigar, Prabhakar, & Srivastav, 2016). The Bond's law is considered appropriate to estimate energy requirement for the coarse particles which yield relatively small increase in surface area per unit mass. The Rittinger's law is used for fine powders which generate large surface area per unit mass, whereas the Kick's law is found fit for intermediate particle size. The energy consumption and particle size distribution are significantly influenced by the feed rate of material, the speed of the mill, and gap between the discs and hardness of the material. These grinding characteristics also changed with time of grinding and speed of mill. The compression and shear type attrition mills are widely used for efficient fine grinding of agricultural products with proper temperature control over the whole operation. The grinding of the material is carried out between the moving corrugated discs by friction and compression forces (Shinohara, Golman, Uchiya...