The first step in animal feed production, pre-cleaning removes foreign materials, iron and trash from feed material that can otherwise affect the functioning of slide gates, gravity /screw feeder in batching or downstream. Pre-cleaning machines generally include rotary sieve, jute remover, magnetic separators etc.

Individual materials are weighed per the formulation to make up one batch - this process is known as batching or proportioning. Silos of suitable capacity are equipped with gravity or screw feeders for controlled material discharge into weigh bins. Typically, two sets of silos and bins are installed - one each for major and minor ingredients. Both weighing bins are discharged into a common stream for further processing. Vibrators are installed on some or all of the bins to make the material flow and avoid jamming. Weighing can be automated through PLC & SCADA software configuration on the basis of simulation.

Materials are ground or crushed for maximum surface area exposure to heat and moisture so gelatinization can be achieved in conditioners. Fine grinding reduces not just the cost of grinding but also energy consumed in pelleting.

Micro ingredients in the whole batch must be efficiently mixed for uniform product quality.  Kumar’s Ribbon Blender Mixer efficiently mixes ingredients in large batches within short time spans.

Conditioning is done to add heat and moisture in mixed feed to achieve gelatinization and making the product flexible for pelleting.

Conditioned ingredients are fed into the pellet mill to form pellets of different sizes using various die sizes. Pellet quality depends on quality of grinding, conditioning, formulation of feed (percentage of oil, protein, fiber etc.) and die configuration.

Hot pellets exiting the pellet mill are cooled immediately to remove moisture and heat. 

Prepared pellets are screened to separate out fines and oversizes from the finished exiting the pellet cooler. Separated fines and oversizes are re-pelleted to increase yield.