Gains:
- Can use the concepts of yield, ash rate and flour type correctly
- This may explain why these three values may conflict with each other
- Can translate customer specification into technical target
Every discussion in milling sooner or later comes down to three numbers: yield, ash and flour type. These three are not independent of each other; Improving one often disrupts the other.
efficiency
Yield is the percentage of flour obtained from milled wheat. If 76 kg of flour is obtained from 100 kg of wheat, the efficiency is 76%. The remaining part is divided into bran, razmol and wastage.
Increasing efficiency is directly reflected in profit: in a facility that grinds 300 tons per day, a 1% increase in efficiency means 3 tons more flour per day. That's why yield is the first number investors ask about.
Ash content
Ash is the amount of minerals remaining when the flour is burned, and in practice it shows the share of bran in the flour. Bran is rich in minerals; The more bran mixed into the flour, the higher the ash rises.
Here the contradiction begins: increasing the efficiency by forcing means getting closer to bran; This raises the ash. In other words, if "high efficiency" and "low ash" are desired at the same time, the process settings become more sensitive and the number of passages increases.
Flour type
Flour type is the classification made according to the ash content (nomenclature varies from country to country). Products such as baklava, bread and whole wheat correspond to different ash ranges. When the customer says "I want a type 550", he is actually saying an ash gap and indirectly an efficiency ceiling.
Translate the specification into a technical target: The sentence "Type 550, 76% efficiency, 300 tons/day" is not a request, but three constraints to be met at the same time. Give AI these three together; If you give only one, the answer you get will destroy the other two.
A fourth constraint is added to these three numbers: energy. Achieving the same efficiency with less kWh creates a permanent difference in operating costs and stands out in offer comparisons.