Raw materials often occur in sizes that are too large to be used and, therefore, they must be reduced in size. Size reduction is the unit operation in which the average size of solid pieces of food is reduced by the application of grinding, compression or impact forces. Size reduction has the following benefits in food processing: • There is an increase in the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the food which increases the rate of drying, heating or cooling and improves the efficiency and rate of extraction of liquid components (for example fruit juice or cooking oil extraction. • A similar range of particle sizes allows more complete mixing of ingredients (for example dried soup and cake mixes). Grinding • the most extensive application of grinding in the food industry is in the milling of grains to make flour, but it is used in many other processes, such as in the grinding of corn for manufacture of corn starch, the grinding of sugar and the milling of dried foods, such as vegetables. • Hammer Mill: • Used for variety of size-reduction or grinding job. • Consist essentially of a rotating beater and a heavy perforated screen. • The material is introduced into the housing and the beater which consist of series of hammers turning at 1500 to 4000 rpm, beats and pounds the material until it is small enough to pass trough the screen at bottom. • Fineness of division is controlled mainly by the size of holes in the screen, rotor revolutions per minute and the rate of feed. • The hammers are rigidly fixed to the shaft or swing. • There is less danger of swinging hammer causing damage if large metallic object gets into the mill by accident. Advantages : 1) Simplicity 2) Versatility 3) Freedom from significant damage to foreign objects. 4) Freedom from damage when operating empty. 5) Hammer wear does not materially reduce its efficiency. Disadvantages 1) Inability to produce a uniform grind. 2) High power requirements • Burr mill: • Also called as plate mills or attrition mill. • Consist of two roughened plates, one stationary, the other rotating . • The material is fed between the plates and is reduced by crushing and shear. • Plates made of chilled cast iron and are usually made of chilled cast iron. • Operating speeds are usually less than 1200 rpm. • Fineness of reduction is controlled by the type of plates and by spacing. • Spacing screw is spring loaded so that the space will increase in case of overload or if a foreign object gets into the mill. Advantages 1)low intial cost . 2) Product may be relatively uniform. 3) Power requirement may be low. Disadvantages: 1) Foreign object may cause breakage. 2) Operating empty may cause excessive burr wear. 3) Worm burrs yield poor results. • Roller mill: Roller mills are similar to roller crushers, but they have smooth or finely fluted rolls, and rotate at differential speeds. They are used very widely to grind flour. Because of their simple geometry, the maximum size of the particle that can pass between the rolls can be regulated. If the friction coefficient between the rolls and the feed material is known, the largest particle that will be nipped between the rolls can be calculated, knowing the geometry of the particles. Ball Mill: In a ball mill or pebble mill, most of the reduction is done by impact as the balls or pebbles drop from near the top of the shell. In a large ball mill the shell might be 3 m in diameter and 4.25 m long. The balls are 25 to 125 mm in diameter. A mill of this kind contains balls of different sizes, all of which wear and become smaller as the mill is operated. New large balls are added periodically. As the shell of such a mill rotates, the large balls move toward the point of maximum diameter, and the small balls migrate toward the discharge. The initial breaking of the feed particles, therefore, is done by the largest ball dropping the greatest distance; small particles are ground by small balls dropping a much smaller distance. When the mill is rotated, the balls are picked up by the mill wall and carried nearly to the top, where they break contact with the wall and fall to the bottom to be picked up again