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Atritor Limited - The basic facts

  • The name 'Atritor' was the name given in the 1920's to the machine developed to simultaneously dry, mill, classify and blow pulverised fuel (coal) into burner systems on boilers, kilns, furnaces etc. The machine is still referred to as 'the Atritor' but qualified with the words 'Dryer-Pulveriser'


  • From the 1920's until 1979 the Atritor was the machine sold successfully worldwide - over 2000 plants - by the Combustion Division of Alfred Herbert Ltd., a global machine tool company employing 12,000 people in Coventry, UK


  • During this time, applications for the simultaneous drying and milling of materials branched out into wider minerals, chemicals, food ingredients and waste product areas


  • By 1979 Alfred Herbert as an organisation was feeling the strain of tight international competition and eventually was broken up and partly liquidated. The Combustion Division (Atritor) was purchased by S. Rosin in 1980 and renamed 'Atritor Ltd.' Mr. Rosin is our chairman and active in the business


  • Mr Rosin had built a successful drying company - Rosin Engineering - particularly famous in the starch and wheat gluten sectors, where Rosin ring dryers are a household name. In the mid 90's this company was sold to GEA (Niro parent) to be reborn Barr-Rosin


  • A few years before this time Atritor branched out product wise and developed the Multirotor Cell Mill, a machine based on the German Wirbelstrommuehle or Long-gap mill, extremely successful for a wide range of simultaneous drying and milling, and milling and classification applications


  • The Cell Mill does basically what the Atritor Dryer-Pulveriser does but is much more energy intensive, therefore producing finer powders. This is illustrated by the comparative rotor tip speeds of the 2 machines; Cell Mill max. = 120 m/s ; Atritor D-P = 90 m/s max. It is also perfect for high integrity surface coating of minerals with performance-enhancing dispersants such as stearic acid or silanes


  • This period also saw Atritor Ltd purchasing the rights to a range of designs, from 50 - 900 mm diameter, of micronising mills - also known as 'spiral jet' mills or 'pancake' mills and generically as 'micronisers'. This started a slow but steady progress into the pharmaceutical industry as well as general industrial micronising / jet milling applications


  • Since the late 90's Atritor has also added the DCM, dynamic classifier mill, to its product range. A recent order for Borculo / Friesland for 2 160kW stainless steel systems however demonstrates the benefits of diversity. This unit is well suited to general milling applications if the products are not too abrasive, such as sugar, powder coatings, chemicals, lactose, carbonate fillers up to 3 Mohs hardness etc


  • In the interests of diversity in an unpredictable world Atritor has formed alliances with companies offering parallel or complimentary technologies. From Scott USA, Atritor markets the AST Turbodryer; with Ecutec, Barcelona, Atritor is able to offer advanced air classifier solutions including development of the Cell Mill integral classifier; with PMT Jetmill, Austria, Atritor can impact on the market leaders, selling advanced Classifier Jet Mill technology


  • Also in partnership with PMT Jetmill GmbH, Atritor has produced an advanced pharmaceutical classifier jet mill - the Pharmill - currently in the prototype testing stage, and formed the joint venture company - Pharmill Technology Ltd


  • Atritor employs around 48 people in manufacturing, foundry, projects, spares, sales and administration here in Coventry. Coventry is just south of Birmingham in Warwickshire and has been famous as the home of Jaguar cars and it's association with Frank Whittle - the inventor of the aero jet engine