Influence of metal coating on sorghum milling process subjected to three body abrasion

Abstract

Abstract:The decline in feedstock quality related to corrugation wear, in milling machine rollers, is a significant factor in milling operation performance. The coating of materials exposed to such loading is a new technique which may assist in preserving the equipment performance. In the current study, mild steel rollers were coated with an epoxy matrix to investigate the influence of the coating on milling performance. Sorghum seeds were selected for milling under different rotational speed rollers with different gaps between the rollers. The milling performance was based on the number of milled particles, production rate (kg/h) and power consumption (kJ/kg). Scanning electron microscopy illustrated better cutting of sorghum particles for the epoxy coated rollers. In addition, statistical analysis shows that coating rollers with the epoxy matrix exhibited significant increases in the number of particles and in power consumption, and a reduction in production rate compared with uncoated rollers.Keywords: roller mill machine; tribology; coating; production rate and power consumption.Reference to this paper should be made as follow: Al-Sandooq, J.M., Yousif, B.F. and Jensen, T.A. (2015) 'Influence of metal coating on sorghum milling process subjected to three body abrasion', Int.