malning

Malning refers to the mechanical reduction of solid materials into smaller particles. The term covers both food-related milling and industrial milling.

In food processing, malning refers to grinding cereals, seeds, and other ingredients into flour, meal, or powder. Traditional methods used millstones, where grain is crushed between two stones. Modern milling uses roller mills, which repeatedly break kernels with rollers and sift fractions to separate coarser from finer streams. The process often includes cleaning, conditioning (adjusting moisture), milling, and sifting. The resulting products include flour, whole-grain meal, cornmeal, and other milled products. The particle size distribution affects baking properties, texture, and nutritional accessibility; milling can remove components (e.g., bran) to create lighter flours, or keep whole grains for higher fiber.

In mining and material processing, malning is one stage in comminution to reduce ore to small particles to liberate valuable minerals. After primary crushing, grinding mills such as ball mills, rod mills, or vertical mills further reduce size. This consumes significant energy and influences metal recovery, circuit design, and efficiency. Finished product sizes range from millimeter down to micrometers, depending on requirements.

The terms grinding and milling are often used interchangeably, though in some contexts milling refers to more controlled, phase-based size reduction. The choice of equipment and operation depends on material characteristics, desired particle size, moisture, and throughput.

Malning has ancient roots with hand-driven millstones, later replaced by steam, water, and electric mills. Advances include roller mills for flour and high-pressure grinding for ore, enabling large-scale production and standardized products.