Roughage is fibrous material found exclusively in vegetable foodstuffs, which is not digested by human digestive enzymes. Most roughage chemically belongs in the group of polysaccharide in the carbohydrates and forms cell wall of seaweeds, bacteria or plants. Roughage helps human digestive and discharge, and it is known as having important function to improve health. Those are categorized as soluble roughage (such as pectin contained a lot in fruits) and insoluble roughage (such as hemi-cellulose, lignin, glucan and Pentosan). Their value in nutritional physiology is high, and their ability to bind water is used industrially. Pectin, for example, is very popular as a thickening agent in jams, jellies and milk products.

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Because the fibers are usually the outer shell of the vegetable material and hard to be milled, the wear to the grinding machine is extremely high. The machine parts are worn away by silica content in the fiber. Because of this, the wear-protection class should be higher than the Mohs’ scale.
The complex structure of roughage coupled with even low mineral substances is difficult to grind, results in a high-energy requirement for ultrafine grinding. The greater the fineness is; the higher the required grinding energy is. Subjecting the roughage to a thermal treatment step, a positive effect to reduce the required energy by about 20%. Applications for roughage are mainly in the food industry but also in other industries (packing industry, insulating material for buildings). Roughage is used in the food industry in whole-grain products, as “additives” in drinks and in snacks, etc. Besides the fine grinding, which forms the main point of emphasis in terms of altering the sensory and physical properties of the product, separation of certain constituents from the roughage provides a further possibilities of fulfilling customer-specific requirements.

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ACM Pulverizer ACM-30H