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Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2026-11-11 Origin: Site
Most enquiries we receive for an Unga Mill Machine for Small Scale Maize Flour Production start with a number that turns out to be wrong. A buyer asks for a small plant, then describes 40 tons a day, a low building and three meal grades. Only one of those is about the mill, and the machine that fits the tonnage can still fail on the building.
This guide sets out how we size a maize line, what each step up the ladder actually buys, and which numbers belong in a proforma before anyone pays a deposit. We mostly work with first-time commercial millers in East and West Africa, so the examples lean toward 7T to 36T rather than the top of the catalogue. The arithmetic is ours; the machine figures are the ones we publish.
"Small scale" describes the buyer, not the equipment. A village toll mill grinds for neighbours bringing their own maize; a commercial starter buys grain and packs meal under its own name; a regional supplier runs two shifts into institutional contracts. Their tonnage overlaps but their requirements do not, so one specification cannot serve all three.
We ask for tons of raw maize per 24 hours, then a second figure for saleable packed product. Cleaning, degerming and sifting split the stream into several grades, so the weight you can sell as premium flour is always lower than intake. A plan assuming 20 tons in and 20 tons of grade one meal out goes back for revision.
We publish maize plants from 7T through 10T, 12T, 20T, 30T, 36T, 40T, 50T, 60T and 100T. It is tempting to read that as one machine getting bigger. It is not. Lower tiers are semi-automatic with pneumatic feeding, middle tiers add conditioning and a fuller cleaning train, upper tiers move to a platform structure with double face roller mills and automatic packing. What changes between tiers is the process.
The maize milling machine range is where we start, because the configuration differences sit side by side. Reading that list tells you more about a supplier's engineering than a headline capacity claim.
Maize mill capacity ladder and what changes between tiers | |||
Tier | Published configuration | Feeding and packing | What we check with the buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
7T | Semi-automatic pneumatic feed, A and B bins, cyclone and air lock | Manual slide gate | Whether fan-driven feeding suits your power supply |
10T and 12T | Cleaner, degermer, premill, auto-feed roller mill, augers, control panel | Automatic feeding, no conditioner listed | Whether conditioning is needed for your target meal |
20T | Adds conditioning machine, roller mills, elevators, full accessories | Compact commercial line | 900-1000 kg/h and about 65 kW against your tariff |
30T to 60T | Single or double face roller mills, platform structure | Automatic or semi-automatic packing | Floor height and access for a platform design |
100T | Grade one double face roller mills, high square sifter, grade one degermer | Automatic or semi-automatic packing | Whether the local market absorbs that volume |
For a buyer moving from toll milling into packed product, we usually start at 20T. Our published page calls it a best seller and a commercial mill to start with. It carries a multi-functional maize cleaner, degermer, conditioning machine, premill, roller mills, loading elevators and a power control system. That is a complete process rather than a grinder with a hopper, and it still fits into one full 20ft container.
The single container matters more than it sounds. Freight, inland trucking, crane access and clearance all simplify when the plant arrives as one unit. We have seen buyers choose a larger tier for the tonnage and then discover a multi-container shipment needs a yard they do not have. The 20T maize mill specification is worth printing and marking up, since every line becomes a question about your own site.
20T line: the numbers we put in a proforma check | ||
Item | Published figure | Why it matters at your site |
|---|---|---|
Design capacity | 900-1000 kg per hour, equal to 20-24 tons per 24h | Sets realistic sales volume, not the nameplate |
Total power | Around 65 kW | Compare with your available supply and tariff before ordering |
Container | One full 20ft | Freight quote and site access for a single container |
Machine train | Cleaner, degermer, conditioner, premill, roller mills, elevators, control panel | Each stage is a separate maintenance item |
Service route | Technicians in East Africa, spares warehouse in Kenya | Who attends commissioning and how fast wear parts arrive |
Three numbers decide whether a line can run: connected power, building dimensions and shipping volume. The 20T maize line draws about 65 kW and ships in one full 20ft container. Our 15T and 20T wheat plants are listed at about 45 kW and 58 kW with suggested godowns of 12000 by 4500 by 5500 mm and 12500 by 4500 by 5500 mm. Those are not maize figures, but they show the building scale involved.
Connected power is not your monthly bill. We size the supply for the largest motor's starting current plus the rest of the train, and we ask what happens when the grid dips, since a plant that trips produces inconsistent meal and wears its drives early. If you run a generator, we need its continuous rating before we confirm the order.
A maize line is a sequence of separations. Cleaning removes stone, metal, dust and bad grain; degerming takes out germ and bran; conditioning adjusts moisture before the premill so the endosperm breaks the way the roller gap expects. Each stage exists because the next one works badly without it, and each is a maintenance item with its own wear parts and operator checks.
The lower tiers omit a conditioning machine by design, not oversight. At 7T the plant is semi-automatic with pneumatic conveying and an A/B bin split by a steel sheet, controlled by a slide gate. Material is drawn into a cyclone and fed through an air lock that seals the air and keeps the feed uniform. That suits a toll mill. It is not built to hold tight moisture control across a long packed-product run.
The product list is where a maize plant becomes a business. Our 36T line produces super fine maize flour, standard meal, grits in several sizes, pure germ and bran simultaneously, with the germ sold on for oil pressing. The 40T line lists sifted grade one meal, breakfast meal and maize rice. We state that finished flour should be pure white, fine and free of sand or off-odour, meeting the Ugali and commercial maize flour standard.
That is a wide spread of value from one ton of grain, and a buyer planning one bag size leaves the grading section underused. We ask which grades sell locally, what the packing habits are, and whether germ has a buyer. The answer changes by country. The unga mill overview collects that product-side context.
A request that says "20 ton maize mill, best price" is not something we can answer properly. We ask for the raw maize variety and moisture at intake, target finished products and their share, available power and generator rating, a building sketch with clear height, and the packing format. None is a formality. Each one changes a machine in the train or a setting on it.
We also ask for trial-run acceptance criteria. Output per hour, sand content and germ recovery are measurable; we will not invent figures we do not publish. If you need a guaranteed extraction percentage or grits size distribution, those go into the order with a test method before production starts. We can build to a specification, but not to one never stated.
The most expensive mistake we see is a site designed around the first machine with no room for the second. Power capacity, intake pit position, elevator height and packing area are cheap to reserve on a drawing and expensive to add later. We ask where you expect to be in three years, even if the first order is 20T, because a 36T or 50T step up changes the building more than the mill.
The 36T complete maize line frames that conversation: 24-hour running at a stable 36 tons of raw maize per day, an optimised roller system with high-efficiency square sifter, and only two to three workers because feeding, milling and sifting are automatic. Labour is a real cost even where wages are low. Our East and West Africa agents, the Nairobi spares warehouse and regular client visits make a second line easier to justify; see our service pages.
Choosing an Unga Mill Machine for Small Scale Maize Flour Production is mostly a job of converting ambitions into numbers. Tons per 24 hours, hours per shift, connected power, clear height, container count, saleable grades and packing format are the inputs; the machine catalogue is the output. Get the inputs wrong and the best-built plant in the range will still underperform.
We have shown the arithmetic rather than the product list, because the buyers who do well ask awkward questions before the deposit. Tehold International supplies grain cleaning, drying, storage, milling and packaging equipment as turnkey packages, and we would rather spend a week on a drawing than a year on a plant that does not fit. Send those fields through the contact page.
It means tons of raw maize per 24 hours of continuous running, not tons of packed flour sold. Our 20T sheet states 900-1000 kg per hour, equal to 20-24 tons per 24h. Cleaning and sifting split output across grades, and an eight-hour shift moves roughly a third of the nameplate volume. We convert to your working day first.
For most first-time packed-product mills, yes. It carries the full cleaning, degerming, conditioning, premill and roller train in a compact layout, draws about 65 kW and ships as one full 20ft container. It suits a wholesale channel rather than a local counter. With three-phase power, a taller building and firm offtake, we would cost a 36T line alongside it.
Those tiers are simpler semi-automatic lines with a cleaner, degermer, premill, auto-feed roller mill, auto-loading augers and a control panel. Conditioning earns its place when you need consistent moisture and granulation across a long packed-product run. At toll-milling volumes the extra stage adds cost and an operator task without much return. We will add it where the specification needs it, but not quietly quote a machine absent from the design.
Yes, and that is the point of a roller plant with a proper grading section. Our 36T line produces super fine maize flour, standard meal, several sizes of grits, pure germ and bran simultaneously, with the germ sold on for oil pressing. What we need from you is the relative share of each product, because the sifter decks and the packing plan follow that split rather than the other way round.
Six items: target tons of raw grain per 24 hours, hours per shift, available supply and generator continuous rating, a building sketch with clear height, finished products and their share, and the packing format. Add a written test method for any figure you want guaranteed. We publish capacity, power, container count and configuration, but not extraction percentages or grits size distributions, so those must be agreed as contract terms rather than assumed.
