Flaking Mill Equipment for Oat, Corn and Cereal Flake Lines

Flaking Mill Equipment for Oat, Corn and Cereal Flake Lines

A flake is made by conditioning grain with steam or water, passing it between two rolls under load, and drying what comes out to a stable moisture. The machines that decide the result are the conditioner, the flaking mill itself, and the dryer and cooler behind it. WUXI HASEN supplies that equipment — as single machines or as a complete flaking line — for oat, corn, barley, sorghum, black rice and quinoa, at capacities from 1 to 500 tonnes per day. We work from Wuxi, China as an export supplier: we source the machines, check them before they ship, and stay with the project until the line produces flakes at the thickness and moisture the customer specified.

This page covers the flaking equipment itself. If you are flaking grain as the first step of a feed plant rather than making cereal flakes for people, the conditioning and roll equipment is the same — see Animal Feed Machine Line for the pelleting, mixing and drying side of that flow.

What a flaking line actually does

A flaking line is short, but each of its three stages has to be right, because the flake inherits the mistakes of the stage before it.

Conditioning. Grain is tempered with steam, or with water and a resting period, so that the endosperm softens and the starch partly gelatinises. The moisture has to reach the centre of the kernel, not just the surface — which is why the conditioner is sized for dwell time, not only for throughput.

Flaking. The tempered grain passes between two rolls held under load. Roll diameter, roll length and the load between the rolls are what set the flake thickness; the roll surface and the tightening system decide how consistently that thickness holds through a shift.

Drying and cooling. The flake leaves the mill hot and moist, and has to be dried and cooled before it is packed, or it will cake in the bag. This is where most under-specified flaking lines lose their product quality.

The equipment we supply

Each machine below is listed with the models we supply and the duty it is normally bought for. Where a detail is not shown, the machine is built to the capacity of the plant rather than sold from a fixed catalogue; the full technical data sheet for any model is available on request.

Corn flaking machines

A corn flaking machine is supplied in two models, FS4080 and FS6080. The smaller machine runs 25–30 t/24h on 11 kW × 2 plus 0.55 kW and weighs 2.5 t; the larger runs 50–80 t/24h on 18.5 kW × 2 plus 0.55 kW and weighs 5 t. The model code reads directly: F for flaking, the next digit for roll diameter (8 = 800 mm), the following digits for roll length (150 = 1,500 mm), S for a single driven motor, and H for high configuration.

Oat flake machines and the oat flake line

An oat flake machine sits at the centre of a longer process than most people expect: naked oats go through cleaning, hulling, washing, spin-drying, thermal deactivation of the enzyme, cutting, steaming, flaking, drying, cooling and packing. The flaking itself is done by a double-roll machine set to about 0.5 mm, with a roller diameter of 200 mm; the oats are cut into halves or thirds beforehand so they laminate evenly, and the drying stage brings the moisture below 10% for storage. Getting the enzyme-deactivation step right is what protects the shelf life — without it, the oat fat oxidises and the product turns.

Steam and pre-cooked flake machines

A steam or pre-cooked flake machine is the feed-industry version of the same idea: steam flaking of corn, barley, sorghum and wheat for cattle, where the gelatinised starch improves feed conversion and animal growth. These lines run continuously from the conditioner into the mill, and the supporting equipment around them is part of the supply — bucket elevators, scraper conveyors, self-balancing vibrating screens, vertical suction ducts, grading and suction destoners, fans, water mixers, corn peeling and degerming machines, steaming towers, the flaking machine, and the drying and cooling box behind it. Capacities approach 30 tonnes per hour on the larger steam flaking lines.

Steam chests with cooling and drying

The steam chest and cooling-drying system is where the tempering actually happens, and it is often the component that decides flake quality. Steam and product move in opposite directions, so the material is tempered gradually from the bottom of the bed upwards rather than in one pass. After about an hour of cooking, the moisture of corn rises from 17% at the inlet to 20% at the outlet, which is the condition the mill needs. It is supplied in models TZT100, TZT200 and TZT300, built in 304 or 201 stainless steel, and designed for sites below 1,000 m altitude, under 40 °C and below 85% humidity.

Grain water-cool cracking machines

The grain water-cool flaker is built for lines where the rolls are cooled rather than steam-heated. Model FG6100FWC carries two 22 kW motors and rolls of 600 × 1,000 mm, holds a flake thickness of 0.3–0.45 mm with adjustment, weighs 6.2 t and measures 2,100 × 2,000 × 1,730 mm. It ships as a complete unit: main body, two motors, two motor slides, two transmission belts, a feed hopper and the manual.

Cracking mills

A cracking mill comes before flaking, or before oil extraction, where the grain or seed has to be broken to a controlled size rather than flattened. The C Series covers 40 to 500 tonnes per day on corn, oat, barley, black wheat and oil seeds, and a 400–1,500 t/day crusher is available where the flow is larger again.

Grain dehullers

A grain dehuller separates hull from kernel on grain, oil seeds, peas and pulses, in one or two stages. Dehulling is what raises the protein content of the extraction meal, and it is also what lets a line produce white flakes and protein concentrates instead of wholemeal.

Cotton seed shellers

A cotton seed sheller separates and crushes cottonseed, soybean, sunflower seed and peanut, with the strongest results on cottonseed. The process route is short and the footprint small, and the whole-kernel rate is high — which matters because kernels that carry less shell mean less oil loss and less wear on everything downstream. The HS25 to HS40 models cover 300 to 1,000 kg per hour with drives from 5.5 to 15 kW, and capacity, voltage, material and size can all be adjusted.

What we need from you to specify a flaking line

Most of what we need is already on your layout drawing or in your product specification. These eight items are what let us put a proposal together quickly:

• Grain to be flaked — oat, corn, barley, sorghum, black rice, quinoa or a mix

• Output wanted, in tonnes per day or tonnes per hour, and whether it is a finished cereal flake or a feed flake

• Flake thickness and tolerance you need to hold

• Moisture in, and the moisture you need at the packing end

• Whether the rolls are to be steam-heated, water-cooled, or run cold

• Steam available at the plant, and at what pressure

• Power supply: voltage, phase and frequency

• Destination port, and whether the machine ships as a single unit or with the rest of a line

If you are adding a flaking section to a plant that already runs, send the capacity of the existing line and its layout as well. Matching new equipment to machines that are already installed is routine for us, including where those machines came from another source.

FAQ: flaking mill equipment

What is the difference between a flaking mill and a cracking mill?

A cracking mill breaks grain or seed into a controlled particle size, and is normally used before flaking or before oil extraction. A flaking mill flattens tempered grain between two rolls to a set thickness, which is what a cereal flake or a feed flake actually is.

What flake thickness can you achieve?

Oat flake lines are normally set to about 0.5 mm, and the water-cool flaking machine holds 0.3–0.45 mm with adjustment. The thickness you can hold through a shift depends on the conditioning, not only on the mill.

Do I need steam conditioning or water cooling?

Steam conditioning is the usual choice for cereal flakes and for feed flaking, because the heat gelatinises the starch. Water cooling is used where the rolls have to be kept cool instead, and we will advise on which suits your product from the specification you are trying to hit.

Can you supply a single flaking machine, or only a complete line?

Both. We supply single flaking, cracking and drying machines where a plant is being extended or de-bottlenecked, and complete flaking lines for new projects.

What capacity can you cover?

Flaking mills cover 1 to 500 tonnes per day, cracking mills 40 to 500 tonnes per day, and cotton seed shellers 300 to 1,000 kg per hour. Where a larger single unit is needed, we will tell you honestly whether it is available.

How do I get a quotation?

Send us the grain, the output you want and the flake thickness you need. We will come back with the machines we would propose for that line, and the questions we still need answered.

Talk to us about your flaking line

Tell us what you want to flake, how much of it, and how thick the flake has to be, and we will come back with the machines we would propose and the points we need to confirm. Dehulling, cracking, conditioning and drying are usually part of the answer, so it helps to send the whole picture rather than one machine at a time. You can also see the pelleting and mixing side of the flow in Animal Feed Machine Line, or contact us directly.