As appeared in January 2015 PBE Copyright CSC Publishing
com
Achieving particle size reduction with a
multirow cage mill
Eric Marcotte Stedman Machine Co.
A cage mill can meet demanding size-reduction
specs for an enormous range of materials, including
limestone, aggregate, clay, shale, fertilizer, distillers’
grains, detergent, corn, salt, coal, and more. This
article describes how a multirow cage mill works
and discusses performance factors that can help
achieve your desired particle size reduction.
A
cage mill is a versatile machine that applies high-
speed impact forces to crush, grind, or pulverize a
broad array of abrasive and nonabrasive friable
materials — both dry and wet — to a specified fineness.
The mill can achieve a size-reduction ratio (the ratio of
feed particle size to final product particle size) as high as
40-to-1 in one processing pass.
The cage mill’s high size-reduction ratio results from its
While a compression mill, such as a jaw or roll crusher,
crushing mechanism: impact rather than compression.
slowly applies the crushing force, an impact mill, like the
cage mill or vertical shaft impactor, does so suddenly and
quickly. Since energy plus material equals size reduction,
the faster the speed of the crushing mechanism or the
material to be crushed, the greater the potential size
reduction. The cage mill puts a lot of energy into the
material in a short amount of time, providing fast, high-
ratio size reduction.
www.powderbulk.
Compared with compression mills, a cage mill produces a
more cubical product of consistently high quality. Even
after long periods of operation, the output gradation
remains consistent because of the design of the wear parts.
The cage mill also has a lower initial cost than most other
types of crushing equipment and requires simple,
inexpensive maintenance.
Components and operation
Cage mills are available in various configurations,
including single-row and multirow models. This article
focuses on the multirow cage mill, which is more versatile
and more frequently used than the single-row cage mill.
Multirow cage mill components. A typical multirow cage
mill consists of a fabricated steel housing that encloses
two, four, or six wheel-shaped cages. Each cage includes
a steel plate fitted with equally spaced pins (bars) arranged
in a row around the cage perimeter. Pins can be configured
in a close, medium, or wide spacing arrangement. The
pins’ opposite ends are attached to a one-piece steel ring
(or band) for rigidity. The cage assembly consists of one,
two, or three outer cages and one, two, or three
corresponding inner cages that are fitted between the outer
cages, forming concentric rows of pins. Figure 1a shows
the two outer cages of a four-row cage mill, and Figure 1b
shows the two inner cages.
The inner cage centers are mounted on a horizontal shaft
supported by bearings and driven by a motor. The outer
cages are mounted similarly on a second shaft, supported
by bearings and driven by a motor. The motors rotate the
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shafts in opposite directions. The cage mill housing is
fitted with liners to handle various operating conditions
and prevent abrasion. An intake hopper is located at the
housing side and is linked to a chute that ends at the cage
center. The cage mill doesn’t use screens or grates to
achieve desired product gradations, so material is
discharged out of the open housing bottom.
How it works. In operation, feed flows through the cage
mill’s intake hopper and chute, into the innermost cage’s
Figure 1
Cages for four-row mill
a. Outer cages
center. As adjacent cages rotate in opposite directions,
centrifugal force propels the particles from the innermost
to the outermost cages. The farther away the particles
travel from the mill center, the higher their impact velocity
as they repeatedly hit each successive cage’s pins, other
particles, and the housing liners, and finally drop through
the bottom outlet. Figure 2 shows a cutaway view of a cage
mill in action.
The cage mill speed can range from as slow as 5,000 fpm
up to as high as 12,000 fpm, depending on the cage mill
size, the cage configuration diameter, and the mill design
and construction. This relationship is simple: the higher
the cages’ speed, the more energy is transferred to the
material for size reduction, thus yielding a finer product
gradation.

Steel plate

Generally, larger cage mills have lower operational

Pin cost per ton of output.

Mill size and capacity

Standard cage size diameters range from as small as 18
inches to as large as 6 feet. In general, the larger the cage
mill, the larger the feed size it will accept and the greater
its production capacity. Capacity also depends on the cage

Figure 2
Steel ring
Four-row cage mill in operation
Feed entering the Intake
b. Inner cages hopper hopper
Housing
lining

Chute

Shaft

Bearing

Inner cage

Outer cage
Particles exiting
bottom outlet
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mill’s speed, the feed’s bulk density, and the desired
product size. Generally, larger cage mills have lower
operational cost per ton of output.
Applications
Multirow cage mills can handle heavy-duty applications
involving hard, highly abrasive materials, as well as
lighter-duty applications for reducing both abrasive and
nonabrasive materials. The mill also handles wet, sticky
materials, such as clay and shale.
Multirow cage mills can handle heavy-duty
applications involving hard, highly abrasive materials,
as well as lighter-duty applications for reducing both
abrasive and nonabrasive materials.
The higher the number of pin rows, the more size-reducing
impacts that occur, so more rows equal more pulverizing.
The two-row mill is commonly used for reducing
A cage mill puts a lot of energy into material in a
short amount of time, providing fast, high-ratio size
reduction.
fertilizer, for crushing wet, sticky shale and clay in brick-
making, and for making manufactured sand for
construction. The four-row unit is commonly used for
pregrinding agricultural limestone and for pregrinding
coal in superfine grinding operations for transfer and
gasification processes. The six-row unit, while less
commonly used, is still popular for grinding corn, malt,
and rye for the distilling industry.
Carefully selecting and operating your cage mill will help
it efficiently meet your size-reduction specs. The cage mill
supplier should test the cage mill’s performance with your
PBE
feed material and use the results to make process
adjustments to achieve the desired output.
For further reading
“Size reduction” in Powder and Bulk Engineering’s
Find more information on crushers in articles listed under
Archive on PBE’s website, www.powderbulk.com. (All
article index in the December 2014 issue or the Article
articles listed in the archive are available for free download
to registered users.)
Eric Marcotte is inside sales manager for Stedman Machine
Co. (812-655-9715, emarcotte@stedman-machine.com).
He holds a BE in mining from the University of Kentucky’s
College of Engineering in Lexington.
Stedman Machine Co.
Aurora, IN
800-262-5401
www.stedman-machine.com