Test Before You Buy™
The Stedman Testing and Toll Processing Facility is the place to test your material in our full size equipment. If it can be crushed, ground, pulverized or mixed, chances are we’ve done it. We have more than 10,000 test reports to help get you to the best solution quickly. To learn more about what to expect from testing, read our article that ran in POWDER BULK ENGINEERING magazine.
What is a Hammer Mill Crusher?
A hammer mill is a size-reduction machine that breaks material through repeated hammer blows rather than by compression or grinding between surfaces. The rotor spins at high speed, and the hammers, mounted on the rotor shaft, strike incoming feed and drive it against breaker plates and screen openings until the particles are small enough to pass through.
Stedman Machine Company has been building industrial hammer mills and hammermill crushers since 1834, and our current product line covers three distinct machine configurations designed for different material types and output requirements. We serve the aggregate, mining, energy, agricultural, food processing, distillery, and industrial markets with hammer mill machines built and supported from our Aurora, Indiana, facility.
What is an Up vs. Down Running Hammer Mill?
Up-running Stedman hammer mills provide multiple size reduction stages for friable materials.
Down-running Stedman hammer mills are most suitable for fibrous materials due to the high concentration of shearing action within the unit.
Not sure which direction suits your material? Schedule your testing today!
What is a Wood Hammer Mill?
Processing wood waste, green wood, and other fibrous materials presents challenges that standard hammermill crusher designs are not built to handle. Fibrous materials do not fracture cleanly the way brittle rock or dry grain does. They tend to wrap around rotor components, clog discharge openings, and cause the kinds of operational problems that lead to unplanned downtime if the machine is not specifically engineered for that behavior.
Our wood hammer mills, sometimes called wood hogs, are heavy-duty machines designed from the ground up for wood and fibrous waste processing. The design eliminates the high-maintenance knife systems that other wood processing equipment relies on, replacing them with a rugged, simple mechanical arrangement that reduces maintenance requirements significantly. The machines are built to handle the bulk density, moisture content variability, and material geometry that wood waste processing involves. Operations processing wood chips, green waste, fibrous agricultural byproducts, or similar materials will find that a wood-specific configuration performs materially better than a standard industrial hammer mill adapted for that purpose.
Features & Benefits
- Large opening for flexibility
- Fully lined crushing chamber for longevity
- Liners are bolted for easy change out
- Grate bars and screens for accurate product sizing that are easily replaceable
- Hammers or rings allowing flexibility
- Forged alloy steel and extreme duty shaft allowing reduced vibration and longer bearing life
- Positive lock housing for extra security from blow outs and dusting
- Adjustable grinding plate for process control
- Multiple rotor configurations to suit any material
- Large discharge opening
Industries
Stedman Machine Company’s line of size-reduction equipment is found in industries and applications from A-to-Z. In fact, it would be easier to list the industries that don’t employ some type of size-reduction equipment!
Asphalt Crushers
The HSI, asphalt crusher, specifically engineered for the asphalt industry, reduces RAP to the required size quickly and easily for further processing.
Rock & Aggregate Crushers
Specialty uses of limestone include the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, toothpaste, paint, paper, caulking, and glass.
Energy & Biomass Pulverizers
One of the first uses for the cage mill was as a coal pulverizer. By 1900 Nathan Stedman had built more than 100 cage mills designed to crush coal.
Ceramic & Brick Clay Crushers
Stedman revolutionized material preparation for the brick, clay, and ceramic industries by introducing more cost-efficient processes.
Size reduction for a variety of minerals
Stedman crushers, mills, and grinders are used in nearly every mineral and mining industry. Whether you are processing coal, rock, salt, iron ore, wood chips or clay, we have your solution to size reduction.
Industrial Food Rendering Crushers
Stedman ensures nothing goes to waste by delivering reliable, durable pulverizers and crushers perfect for handling food waste and food rendering.
Agricultural Crushers
Stedman delivers high-performing pulverizers crushers perfect for agricultural uses including crushing lime, processing animal feed, and reducing grain corn.
Industrial Herb & Spice Crushing Equipment
Stedman delivers high-performing, low-maintenance pulverizers crushers ideal for large-scale grinding, milling, and processing of herbs and spices.
Grain Processing Equipment for Distilleries
Stedman delivers high-performing, low-maintenance pulverizers & crushers ideal for large-scale grinding and milling grain and corn to supply distilleries.
Fertilizer Crushing Equipment
Stedman’s reliable, durable lump breakers, chain mills, and cage mills are expertly engineered, sturdily constructed, and rigidly tested to meet the specifications you require for heavy-duty fertilizer processing and size reduction.
Hammer Mill Resources
Why Stedman?
Delivering equipment and service you deserve
For nearly two centuries, Stedman Machine Company has produced quality, reliable and durable size reduction and industrial crushing equipment. Stedman has expert field service and installation technicians ready to assist with all maintenance and equipment commissioning needs.
- Unsurpassed industry experience – operating since 1834
- State-of-the-art equipment testing facilities
- Dedicated, professional staff
- Parts and service available 24 hours a day
Frequently Asked Questions
A hammer mill reduces material through repeated blows from hammers mounted on a spinning rotor, driving material against breaker plates and screens until it's small enough to pass through. Jaw crushers use compression between a fixed and moving plate, and impact crushers use blow bars rather than swinging hammers. If your material needs repeated impact reduction down to a specific screen size rather than a single compression pass, a hammer mill crusher is generally the right category of machine to start with.
A standard hammer mill can struggle with wet or sticky material because it tends to build up on internal components and reduce throughput. Our Full Circle Hammer Mill runs air-swept at lower temperatures, which helps with material that gets sticky when it heats up. If you're not sure how your material will behave, that's exactly what our Testing and Toll Processing Facility is for.
A wood hog is our term for a wood hammer mill, a heavy-duty machine built specifically for wood waste and fibrous material rather than a standard hammer mill adapted for that use. The core difference is that our wood hammer mills replace high-maintenance knife systems with a simpler mechanical arrangement built to handle the bulk density and moisture variability of wood waste, which a standard hammer mill isn't engineered for.
Running fibrous material through the wrong rotor direction typically means the material doesn't shear the way it needs to, so you get inconsistent particle size and faster wear on internal components. This is the exact reason we recommend testing your material with us before choosing between our Type A up-running and Type B down-running configurations rather than guessing based on general material category.
Our 24-hour parts and service department and wear parts inventory are built to get you back up and running fast, and we can discuss replacement parts and service needs regardless of your current equipment setup. Contact our parts and service team directly with your machine details and we'll tell you what we can support.
Yes, we support international capabilities in addition to our Aurora, Indiana manufacturing and service operations. If you're evaluating a hammer mill for a facility outside the U.S., reach out with your project details and we can walk you through logistics, lead time, and support options for your region.
Contact Us
Our 24 hour parts and service department along with our inventory of wear parts allow us to provide the fastest response time for parts and service.