List of types of mill

Overview
A mill is a device or facility that breaks solid materials into smaller pieces, grinds, crushes, or otherwise processes them. Mills have been employed across a wide range of industries—including agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and waste management—and may be powered by various energy sources or be mobile. The term “type of mill” encompasses both the functional purpose of the equipment (e.g., grinding grain versus crushing ore) and the means by which it is powered or situated.

Classification by power source

• Watermill – Powered by the kinetic energy of flowing water.
• Windmill – Utilises wind to turn a rotor and drive milling mechanisms.
• Tide mill – A watermill that exploits the rise and fall of tidal waters.
• Treadmill or treadwheel – Driven by human or animal locomotion.
• Horse mill – Powered by the movement of horses.

Classification by mobility

• Ship mill – A floating watermill anchored in a river or bay, using the current or tide for power.
• Field mill (carriage) – A portable mill that can be moved to different locations.

Classification by product or material processed

• Materials recovery facility – Processes municipal solid waste, separating metals, plastics, paper, etc.
• Rice mill – Removes husk and bran from paddy rice to produce edible grain.
• Bark mill – Produces tanbark for use in leather tanning.
• Cereal mill / Gristmill – Grinds cereal grains into flour or meal.
• Coffee mill – Roasts or grinds coffee beans.
• Colloid mill – Reduces particle size in colloidal suspensions.
• Cider mill – Crushes apples to extract juice for cider production.
• Drainage mill – Pumps water from low‑lying lands.
• Flotation mill – Utilised in mining to separate ore particles by differences in hydrophobicity.
• Herb grinder – Reduces herbs to a fine consistency.
• Oil mill – Extracts oil from seeds or nuts, often via expeller pressing.
• Ore mill – Crushes and processes ore for mineral extraction.
• Paper mill – Manufactures paper from pulp.
• Pellet mill – Forms fine powders into small, uniform pellets.
• Powder mill – Produces fine powders, historically for gunpowder.
• Rock crusher – Reduces large rocks to smaller aggregate.
• Sugar cane mill / Sugar mill – Extracts juice from sugarcane or sugar beets and refines it into sugar.
• Sawmill – Cuts timber into boards, planks, or other lumber.
• Starch mill – Extracts starch from agricultural products.
• Steel mill – Produces steel from iron ore or scrap metal.
• Textile mills – Include cotton, flax, silk, and woollen mills for processing fibers into fabric.
• Wire mill – Draws metal into wire.

Industrial tools for size reduction and/or filtration

• Arrastra – Simple ore‑grinding mill using stones or metal rods.
• Ball mill – Uses rotating cylinders filled with steel or ceramic balls to crush material.
• Bead mill – Employs small beads for fine grinding of suspensions.
• Burr mill / burr grinder – Utilises two abrasive surfaces (burrs) to grind substances such as coffee beans or spices.
• Conical (screen) mill – Grinds material with a conical screen.
• Cutting mill – Laboratory device for preliminary size reduction.
• Disc (disk) mill – Uses rotating discs to pulverise material.
• Hammermill – Employs hammers to shatter material against a screen.
• IsaMill – Energy‑efficient mineral‑industry grinding mill developed in the 1990s.
• Jet mill – Uses high‑speed jets of compressed air or gas to impact particles and achieve fine size reduction.
• Milling machine – General term for a machine tool that removes material by rotary cutting.
• Mortar and pestle – Manual grinding device.
• Pin mill – Achieves very fine particle sizes via high‑speed rotating pins.
• Planetary mill – Utilises rotating jars for high‑energy grinding.
• Roller mill – Employs rollers to crush or grind grain and other raw materials.
• Rolling mill – Shapes metal by passing it through rollers.
• Strip mill – A type of rolling mill for producing metal strips.
• Slitting mill – Cuts metal sheets into narrower strips or nails.
• Stamp mill – Reduces ore to powder for further processing.
• Three‑roll mill – Uses three rollers for high‑precision grinding.
• Ultrasonic disintegrator – Uses ultrasonic energy for particle breakdown.
• Vibratory mill – Uses vibration to grind material.
• VSI (vertical shaft impactor) mill – Impacts particles against a hard surface to produce fine aggregate.
• Wet mill – Performs milling with the material immersed in water or another liquid.
• Wiley mill – A specific brand of laboratory grinding equipment.

See also

• Industrial building
• Comminution (the process of size reduction)
• Grinding (mechanical)
• Milling (machining)

References

• “List of types of mill,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_types_of_mill (accessed 2026).