VANCOUVER, WASH. — ABM Equipment, a bulk systems supplier for many pet food facilities, released its new mill design, made specifically to address challenges associated with popular dust-tight roller mills. The new mill is designed to reduce the particle size of grains for feed and ingredients used in processed pet foods.
The 9x9 mill features 9-inch rollers that can handle up to 66.5 lbs per minute, complementing existing 9x6 and 9x12 options. It also includes a closeable flow gate, hinged hopper and optional reversible drive to reduce risk of flooding. To ensure ease of maintenance, the mill features a dust-tight design with sealed bearings and a grate magnet to protect the rollers and reduce roller drift. The mill is made in the United States, comes with 24/7 support and works with ABM’s system automation software DSO Sentinel.
Other features that are added to the first mills sold include manual or digital roller position indicators and an angled gravity-drop sampler for gentle conveying methods.
“Some features we’ve added already exist in other mills,” said John Cassa, co-owner of ABM. “We just wanted to combine everything — existing features in this mill or that, solutions for problems the most popular mills have always had, and keep the price down. Our introductory price will depend on how many POs we get on release because rollers are the most expensive part and their price is volume sensitive.”
To create the mill, ABM partnered with several brewers, including Marc Martin of Alpha King Consulting and Jim Thurman, the inventor of the Jim Boney mill. Thurman and ABM are currently collaborating on the next version of a three-roller mill for smaller operations, set to be released later this year.
In addition to the new mill, ABM also announced it is offering an x-ray rental service. The service allows food, beverage and pet food producers to rent x-ray systems for new product testing, batch contamination concerns or new buyer audits.
ABM’s rental service offers various benefits, including:
- Speed, as processors won’t need to wait for more complex x-ray equipment that carries longer lead times.
- Flexibility with short- and long-term rental options to suit a range of production needs. In fact, if a processor does not have space for x-ray equipment, product can be sent to ABM for inspection.
- Access to the latest technology, with ABM offering options to rent a photon-counting unit from Eagle PI, a new development in the industry.
“A big benefit we offer to the space is short-term access to PXT systems, which are currently the highest-performing machines on the market,” said Sam Cassa, sales manager at ABM. “As of late 2024 some companies have started to claim the same thing, but we urge people to send test product to any competitor to see for themselves.”
Find more articles about the latest pet food processing technologies on our Equipment page.
